Teke Teke

Overview

A Japanese urban-legend onryō: the spirit of a young woman or schoolgirl bisected by a train who travels on her hands or elbows, making a 'teke-teke' scratching sound, and bisects those she catches.

Details

Origin:

Originally a Japanese schoolyard / tabloid urban legend; widely diffused since the 2000s through Japanese horror media and English-language internet culture.

Regions:

Hokkaidō (Kashima Reiko origin), Honshū, Japanese urban areas generally

First Reported:

1980s

Full Account

Teke Teke (テケテケ) is a Japanese urban legend that emerged in the 1980s and reached peak popularity in the 1990s. The legend tells of an onryō — a vengeful ghost — formed when a young woman or schoolgirl fell from a railway platform and was cut in two by an oncoming train. In most retellings she dies because of inadequate response by station staff and bystanders. Now lacking the lower half of her body, she travels on her hands or elbows at extremely high speed, dragging her bisected torso along the ground and producing a scratching sound rendered onomatopoeically as 'teke teke teke teke'. Encountering her at night, especially in train stations, school grounds, or empty streets, allegedly leads to pursuit; if she catches a victim, she severs them at the waist with a scythe or similar implement, perpetuating the cycle. Teke Teke is closely related to the older urban legend of Kashima Reiko, a girl in Hokkaidō traditionally said to have lost her legs in a railway accident; both legends share a railway-trauma origin. A Japanese horror film, 'Teketeke', was released in 2009, with a sequel the same year. The legend belongs to a broader cluster of Japanese urban-legend ghosts (kuchisake-onna, Hanako-san, aka manto) that became cultural touchstones in late-20th-century Japan.

Also Known As

• テケテケ (Japanese (katakana))
• Kashima Reiko (Japanese, Hokkaidō)

Etymology

Origin:

Japanese onomatopoeia 'teke teke', the scratching or scuttling sound she is said to make as she pulls her body along the ground.

Meaning:

Approximately 'scratch-scratch' — naming the entity after the sound of her movement.

First Use:

1980s schoolyard urban legends in Japan; popularised in the 1990s in tabloids and television.

Timeline

• 1985-01-01 — Teke Teke and related Kashima Reiko legends are in active oral and print circulation in Japan (Anchor period of the legend's emergence)
• 2009-04-25 — Japanese horror film 'Teketeke', directed by Kōji Shiraishi, is released in Japan (Major film treatment that helped diffuse the legend internationally)
• 2009-07-25 — Sequel 'Teketeke 2' is released in Japan (Cements the legend in J-horror franchises)

Sightings & Evidence

Cultural Significance

Treated as a frightening urban legend used by schoolchildren; elements (chain-letter retelling, ritual avoidance phrases) function as classic urban-legend folkloric mechanisms.

Related Phenomena

• Kashima Reiko — Older Japanese urban legend of a legless ghost in railway/bathroom contexts; precursor to Teke Teke
• Kuchisake-onna (Slit-Mouthed Woman) — Contemporary Japanese urban-legend onryō pursuing schoolchildren
• Hanako-san — Japanese urban-legend ghost said to haunt school bathrooms
• Aka Manto — Japanese urban-legend bathroom ghost

Tags

Sources

• Teke Teke — English Wikipedia
• Kashima Reiko — English Wikipedia