An elementary school student was on the way home from school when a strange woman came

walking towards him on the other side. Despite the fact it was summer, the woman was wearing

a long red coat and her mouth was covered with a large surgical mask. Then, as she passed the student, she asked him something.

Am I... pretty?

Although she was wearing a mask, the woman appeared to be quite young and beautiful. So the student answered,

Yes, you are. The woman then removed her mask.

How about now? she screamed. The mask was hiding the woman's mouth,

slit from ear to ear.

She removed a sickle from beneath her coat

and attacked the elementary school student.

The boy, terrified, tried to run,

but the woman was too fast, catching him with incredible speed.

Then she stuck the sickle in his mouth and ripped it from ear to I. Hello. Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Toshiden, exploring Japanese urban legends.

I'm your host, Tara A. Devlin, and on this show we'll be looking at different urban

legends from Japan, how they came about, and, when possible, the truth behind them.

Many of you may know me from the Ko-Avana podcast, where I translate and read creepy Japanese

stories from the internet.

With this show, I'll once again be doing all of my own research and translating, to bring

you interesting and occasionally unheard of legends from Japan. Japan has a very healthy urban legend community,

many of which don't make it to the west,

so with this show, I'm hoping to introduce them to a whole new audience.

The Toshiden, from the title, comes from Toshidensetsu,

...