Japanese Urban Legends

Sugisawa Village

This legend is about a village that exists somewhere in Japan. However, finding it is nearly impossible, according to this legend. Why?

Because it was wiped off of the map, along with all of the villagers living there.

According to this legend, there was a small village known as Sugisawa. It was fairly small and not many people lived there probably due to its rural location in the Aomori Prefecture (a district in Japan). One day, a man experienced a "moment of madness" and began a violent murder spree. He managed to slaughter everyone in the small village, before killing himself to end the bloodbath. In the end, nobody from the village was left alive.

After the tragedy, the abandoned village was erased from official maps around the area, along with any documents the village was mentioned in. The land the village was incorporated into a nearby town. The story of what happened spread throughout the Aomori Prefecture, yet little to no people dared to visit the village. This is due to the rumors that spread across the land, which included details of how that the village was plagued by evil spirits and that those who entered the village would never return. It was also said that the few people that wandered near the village died from mysterious causes.

If one would go towards the area, they would start hearing talking and laughing in the distance, as if there were some sort of festival. The noises would then suddenly switch to terrified screaming before returning back to the cheerful sounds of talking.

Some people refused to tell their friends and family about the location for fear that they would visit the area and end up dead. As the years went on, those who knew of its location died, taking the knowledge with them.

 Eventually, only a few knew of what happened, and just about nobody knew of where it was located. Nobody really cared to search for the village, either. They were fine with forgetting the despair that happened there, along with the misfortune that comes to those that enter. But one day that mentality changed. Word got out to other cities across Japan about the obscure tale of the Sugisawa village, along with its vague location. After decades of forgotten history, people finally started wondering where the area was. 

 People began looking for Sugisawa in the Aomori Prefecture. A Japanese television show "Miraculous Experience! Unbelievable!" spoke about it in an episode, leaving many viewers fascinated by the story. People have gone out on trips to search for the village, but end up finding nothing. The online accounts that speak of people finding the village are extremely vague and have no credit or proof to them.  

Now, this is where the urban legend gets a bit hazy. There isn't a lot of English sources/websites that discuss this, and the ones that are present are unreliable. I've come to realize that many websites had information that came from Zero Wiki, a Wikipedia created for the Fatal Frame series (it's a video game series with dark and paranormal themes and is also known as "Project Zero series" in Japan, hence why it's called the Zero Wiki). According to this Wikipedia, the reason why they included the Sugisawa Village on their website is that it holds similarities to a mysterious town included in Fatal Frame 2: The Crimson Butterfly. This seems to be one of the most trustworthy sources I used that was in English, along with a blog that was helpful in trying to explain why the research for this legend is so confusing. To sum up this lengthy paragraph, a lot of websites and videos about this were just all over the place and very faded, with only one somewhat reliable website being that of an article from a video game wiki. But although most of the websites are definitely sketchy and vague, I've been able to muster a faint idea of the two theories/ideas surrounding the fate of the village. 

1) The village, having evil spirits and all, became part of the spiritual world in which people can't escape from. In other words, it exists in a distortion of space-time, and the village comes and goes as it pleases. The souls from the village are trapped there, their spirits unable to leave the hellish place where they died. This would explain why there are odd noises and other mysterious events that occur there, along with how people that enter it never come back out alive. It sounds pretty cool and sci-fi, although I have no idea how a town would randomly pop in and out of places. Some people think that the village can also be linked to the afterlife as well.

2) The village is just super hard to find, possibly because of the thick forest terrain surrounding it or how crumbled the ruins are. It might be found one day, but for now, it's probably too discrete and hidden to find any time soon. 

It is said that if a person ever happens to stumble upon the village, they will find a sign near the road that leads to the village. It reads: "There is no guarantee that those who enter here will remain alive". There also is supposed to be a torii gate and a stone that looks like a skull at the entrance. Besides that, the description of the village's interior is unknown.

This legend is believed to have been similar to the "Tsuyama massacre", an awful murder spree that occurred in 1938 in a rural village next to Tsuyama, a city in Japan. This massacre was done by a man named Mutsuo Toi. Upon learning that he had tuberculosis and was soon going to die, he murdered 31 people and then committed suicide. This toll was roughly half of the population of the village and was a disturbing event that occurred during the time. The murders were done in the midst of the night when he cut the electricity lines, sending the entire village into sheer darkness before starting the silent rampage. The suicide note he left revealed that he was worried about the social impact of having tuberculosis, which was incurable at the time, along with how he was treated coldly once he told others about his disease. I recommend doing more research on the massacre, but I'm probably only saying this because these kinds of stories interest me much more than others.

Anyways, that's all that's known about the Sugisawa Village- unless you find it one day, that is.