From the late 1950s through the Heisei era, urban legends such as "Kuchisakeonna (Slit-Mouthed Woman)" and "Hanakosan (Toilet Girl)" swept across Japan, creating a social phenomenon. The urban legends that were the driving force behind these legends and caused a stir at the time, and are still secretly passed down today, actually exist in Kyoto."The Ghostly Riot at Fukamidori Pond."The first is.

deep mud pond

Fukamudori-ike Pond is located in the center of a marshy area on the west side of Takaragaike Pond, north of Kurama Kaido Road running north-south in the city and passing through the Kitayama residential area. With a circumference of 1.5 km and an area of 9 ha, it is the oldest natural pond in Kyoto,Groups of plants and animals from the Ice Age continue to live on.This is a surprise. As the name implies, the pond is filled with several meters of mud,A bottomless swamp that you can't get out of once you step into it.It is said that this pond is the most famous in the world. What made this pond even more famous was an urban legend.

Depth of Deep Mud Pond

Late at night in a drenching rain, a cab picked up a rain-soaked female passenger near the Deep Throat Pond. She had long hair and was wearing a white one-piece dress. When the driver asked her where she was going, she turned her head and said, "To Kami-Hanayama, Yamashina-ku.

The driver thought, oh well. The place is only a crematorium.

What the hell do you want at this time of night? ......I thought, and started the cab.

The driver looked in the rearview mirror and saw that there was no female passenger in the mirror. There was no female passenger in the mirror. He hurriedly stopped the cab and turned around to find the empty back seat soaked to the skin.

This is an urban legend of the type often circulated, but there was a continuation to this story.

A cab driver rushed to the nearby police station out of the blue, saying that he had dropped a female customer from his car. However, the driver rushed to the site where he said he searched, but found no trace of her or any witnesses. These strange incidents happened many times after that.

One of the writer's fellow writers also heard this story from a former police officer who interviewed the cab driver at the police station where he rushed into the incident at the time, so it is a fairly credible urban legend.

By the way, to the north of the crematorium in Kamihwayama, where this woman's passenger was going, there are whispers that she will "get out.Kyoto's three major tunnelsHanayama-dong (tunnel), one of the In the old days, it was located on the Shibuya Kaido road that passed through the windfall area of Toribeno. In the Edo period (1603-1867), the road was called "Shirutani Kaido" because it was muddy and difficult to walk along. The name is said to have come from "Shibitodani," meaning "valley of the dead.

In the Meiji era (1868-1912), the Hanayama Tunnel (Hanayama-dong) was opened on this road, and then in 1967, the Higashiyama Tunnel was completed, mainly for vehicle traffic, and since then, vehicles have been allowed to pass through that tunnel.

I walked through the Hanayama Tunnel from the Higashiyama-ward side. There are various rumors that people have seen a ghost of a woman in a kimono in the tunnel, or that only the sound of her footsteps follows them. Certainly, there is an atmosphere around the area and in the tunnel that is not surprising for such rumors to emerge.

Old Hanayama Tunnel (Higashiyama direction)

The name "Hanayama-dong" is inscribed in the direction of Yamashina

The adjacent Higashiyama Tunnel is always busy with vehicles, but this one is completely empty.A relic of its timeI was lucky that I was not followed by a woman in a kimono or by the sound of some footsteps. Fortunately, I was not followed by the woman in the kimono or the sound of some footsteps, and I got out safely on the Yamashina side of the street. I was about to look in that direction when a small shadow danced at my feet.

Hiccup, I exclaimed.

The little shadow that looked back at me was ......, what a cute little Sabatura cat!

As if to say that neither crematoriums nor urban legends matter, and that I have secured a safe territory with no traffic, the cat meowed and disappeared into the grass beside the house.

Cat I met right after crossing the tunnel.