Edo Ghost Stories

The spirit of a Heian court lady who haunts ruined aristocratic mansions, still applying her blackened teeth makeup centuries after her death.

A haunted Edo mansion terrorized by an enormous disembodied foot that crashes through the ceiling demanding to be washed. This famous Edo kaidan is one of Japan's most distinctively absurd ghost stories.

A tsukumogami born from an old paper lantern, with a gaping mouth and single eye — a fixture of Edo-period ghost stories and candlelit horror gatherings.

A female skeleton ghost whose obsessive love survives death. She returns nightly to the man she loved in life, appearing beautiful until her true form is revealed.

A yokai covered in glowing eyes, born from the spirit of a habitual thief.

A child-monk yokai from Edo with a third eye in the center of its forehead, whose supernatural gaze is said to bring misfortune or illness to those it fixes upon.

An old man who slips into homes uninvited and cannot be removed.

A haunted moat in Edo's Honjo district where a ghostly voice cries "Leave it behind!" at fishermen trying to take their catch home.

A yokai that licks old house ceilings with its long tongue, causing no harm.

A harmless child yokai carrying tofu — Edo Japan's earliest cute-monster craze.

A flaming wheel with a human face, rolling through the night to steal souls.