Posted by Toire no Hanako (“Hanako of the toilet”) is a Japanese urban legend, spread in every prefecture of Japan. This legend is based on the spirit of a little girl, Hanako, who is said to inhabit elementary school’s bathrooms.
The story of Toire no Hanako
This urban legend became viral in the 90s but it is thought to date back to the 50s. There are various versions depending on the area, but the most common one is the following:
Toire no Hanako would be the spirit of a little girl, with a bob cut and a red skirt, who is said to have been killed by an abusive parent or a stranger, or in an air raid during World War II while hiding in the school toilet during a game of hide-and-seek. Other versions say she died there after being bullied.
In any case she seems to live in third cabin of the girl’s bathroom on the third floor. She seems an almost benign spirit and some say she protects the school from evil ghosts.
If you want to avoid her anyway, just stay away from the third cabin bathroom on the third floor or, once you meet her, just showing your good grades at school will make her disappear.
According to another version if you knock on the cabin three times and ask “Hanako, are you there?” you can hear a voice saying “Yes, I am here”, then the door would open and Hanako would drag you into the toilet with her, straight to hell. In other versions a bloody hand appears, or you are eaten by a three-headed lizard that accuses you of invading Hanako’s privacy.
Another version, which actually gets mixed up with another legend, that of Aka Manto, has it that Hanako appears when you run out of toilet paper, asking “Do you want red or blue toilet paper?” If you choose the first you will die of a violent death, if you choose the latter you will face death by strangulation or bleeding.
Some students were so scared by it to show bladder problems because they refused to go to the bathroom during school time.
The origin
Toire no Hanako is not the only Japanese legend set in a bathroom. This comes from the belief that spirits, if present in a house will be hiding in the smaller room.
Also in Japan, again for reasons of superstition, the bathrooms are always located in the darkest part of a house.
This may be due to the ancient superstition that the wells were inhabited by spirits and with the advent of modernity the wells have been replaced by toilets.
Another legend about toilets is the one about Aka Manto (“Red Coat”), who is said to be a spirit that haunts the public toilets.
Another one also tells of a spirit that haunts school toilet and it is in fact a boy named Yousuke who, once invoked, will stick his bloody hand out of the toilet.
Another one again tells of the spirit of a girl with no legs who haunts the toilets looking for her legs: that is Teke Teke.
On the Hanako-san legend, several films have been made in Japan: the first, Toire no Hanako-san by Joji Matsuoka, came out in 1995, followed by another in 1998 and two in 2013.
Hanako has become an icon of Japanese pop culture: she appears in manga and anime such as GeGeGe no Kitarō, Dandadan and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, where she has become a boy, in video games such as Yo-kai Watch and even in a 2022 music video by the group Atarashii Gakko!. And she can’t help reminding us a little of Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunts the bathrooms in the Harry Potter books.
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