The Obakemono Project. This is fantastic.
Nopperabou: This famous, faceless apparition seems to take particular delight in terrifying human beings. While its appearance is deeply disturbing, it is only really a danger to those with weak hearts.
There are many stories about nopperabou
encounters, and most of them follow the same twofold pattern: The protagonist encounters what appears to be ordinary human being with the back turned or the face obscured in some fashion. Trying to strike up a conversation, the victim is met with a face as smooth as an egg, without eyes, nose, or mouth. Scared out of his wits, he runs away and seeks out the comfort of another mortal's presence, sometimes someone he knows. After the victim has recounted the whole unnerving story, his companion agrees that this is a very weird tale, and then proceeds to ask, "This face, was it this sort of face?" or something along those lines. At this point what the poor fellow thought was another human loses his facial features as well, and the victim often winds up fainting in helpless terror. Other favorite entries include
nuribotoke,
rourokubi,
taimatsumaru,
ningyo,
jorougumo,
gyuuki,
bakeneko, and
kitsune. What a neat site. (via
MetaFilter)
# posted by
Gerry Canavan @ 1:27 PM
|