Teketeke (テケテケ)

What is the Teketeke?

In Japan, the concept of the Onryo (怨霊), or vengeful spirit, makes up a significant part of the supernatural world. Although the first signs of Onyro trace all the way back to the 8^th century, modern Japan has conceived its fair share of new Onryo, which spring up from things like urban legends and fictional horror stories. Teketeke is one of these Onryo.

Teketeke (テケテケ) is the enraged spirit of a young Japanese girl. She has only a torso, as the rest of her body has been severed, and typically appears pale and zombie-like, in the vein of other modern Japanese horrors. Her clothes are almost always either rags, or a female school uniform. Some details of her physical appearance change in different depictions, such as Teketeke holding a weapon like a large sickle or a dagger, as well as holding no weapon but instead having sharp claws for hands. Some illustrations do away with claw hands and weapons entirely.

The creation of Teketeke is somewhat unclear, despite her being a more modern Yokai. The origins of the entity herself, however, seem to occur some time between the end of World War II and around 1970. The most widespread legend of Teketeke’s origins is one of a young woman from Hokkaido. The story goes that this office worker from Muroran was attacked and raped by an American soldier. Traumatized, she turned to suicide, and threw herself onto train tracks later that night. She was hit by a passing train, and the impact split her body in half. Instead of bleeding to death, the frigid Hokkaido air quickly shrunk her blood vessels prevented her from dying. In terrible pain, the woman managed to crawl all the way to the nearest train station, where she was spotted by a worker there. Instead of helping her, the worker simply covered the legless body with a tarp and left her to die a slow, painful death.

After manifesting her anger towards the employee who let her die, the woman returned to the realm of the living as Teketeke. Rumor has it that upon having the story of the Teketeke told to you, she will find you while you are returning home at night, usually within the month. Once you lay eyes on her, Teketeke will begin crawling after you, and upon being caught she will sever your legs from your body just as hers have been, and steal them. The name “Teketeke” is a Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound the creature’s hands make as they claw the ground in pursuit of her victim, and no one can get away. It is said that even in a car you will not be able to get away from Teketeke, as the spirit can crawl upwards of 150 km/hr. Being a target of Teketeke might seem hopeless, but there just might be a way to escape your demise…

Variations in Origin

As with many other supernatural beings (especially those that find their origins in urban legends), Teketeke has its fair share of variations. This is not necessarily physical variation, as mentioned earlier, but changes in the way Teketeke’s creation came about. One key point that varies from story to story is how Teketeke wound up on the train tracks before dying. The most notable version of the tale states that the woman was driven to suicide by the trauma of being raped, but other versions of the story point towards bullying as the cause of her suicide, implying that Teketeke was a high school student in life rather than an office worker. Another version of the tale once again portrays Teketeke in life as a high school student, but an incredibly timid one. One day while waiting for the train, a fellow student thought it would be funny to catch a cicada and place it on the girl’s shoulder, scaring her. He did so, and even though it took a while for her to notice due to the sound of the trains dampening the cicada’s cries, when she finally did the girl flailed about out of fear, eventually tripping and falling onto the railroad tracks where she was split in half by an oncoming train.

These differences in origin for the Teketeke do not necessarily change much for the spirit overall, as she still winds up an Onryo, searching for anything or anyone to take revenge on from beyond the grave. It is worth mentioning, though, that the versions of the tale that portray Teketeke as a schoolgirl typically mention that she only wishes to extract revenge on people similar to the ones that bullied her in school. This is a bit more exclusive than the version of the Teketeke that was raped or simply beaten (like Kashima Reiko), who is not particular in her choice of victims, choosing to kill whoever is unfortunate enough to hear her story.