Mujina on the Akasaka slope: the face that vanished twice
A merchant tries to comfort a weeping woman, flees her featureless face and seeks safety beside a noodle seller.
Insufficient evidenceTokyo: Kii-no-kuni-zaka as a literary setting
Atlas of mysteries
Items: 143All material
Yuki-onna: the promise a woodcutter broke at home
A young man survives a snowy night, keeps its secret and years later recognises the visitor in his wife.
Insufficient evidenceHistorical Musashi Province; the exact village is not established
Hoichi the Earless: a musician before the court of the dead
A blind performer believes he is playing for an aristocratic audience until temple servants discover him among graves.
Insufficient evidenceShimonoseki in Hearn’s narrative; the precise scene is not locat…
The Berwick revenant: dogs, night-time fear and a fire
William of Newburgh recounts a buried wealthy man reportedly seen at night amid barking dogs.
Insufficient evidenceBerwick-upon-Tweed; approximate town location
Snowball the tailor: a raven, a dog and a request for absolution
A medieval account follows a tailor’s encounter with a changing spirit and his journey to obtain written absolution.
Insufficient evidenceNorth Yorkshire: the road from Gilling East to Ampleforth
The Athenian house in chains: Pliny’s Athenodorus story
A philosopher rents a suspiciously cheap house and follows an apparition to a place where the letter says human remains were discovered.
Insufficient evidenceAthens; the source supplies no address
Drawsko: what sickle burials reveal about fear of the dead
Unusual burials with sickles and stones became known as vampire graves. Archaeology establishes the treatment, while its precise meaning needs careful interpretation.
Under reviewDrawsko, Greater Poland; approximate site area
Domovoi: the invisible household master and the stories around him
Why families invited a household spirit into a new home, and what ethnographic records actually preserve.
Insufficient evidenceEast Slavic folklore tradition