Aka Manto - The Multicultural Toilet Ghost.
Categorisation: Yokai
Origin: Osaka (1935)
Someplace, somewhere, packed in the dense populace of Osaka, there sat a school. Upon the cue of a bell, the students filed into the towering buildings. A group of boys clad in black formal-wear congregated around a modestly sized building to the side, waiting for their friend to reappear. He went to use the bathroom around… what, nine minutes ago? None of the boys could shake the feeling that something was off. They waited for a little longer before they’d absolutely have to leave for class. They waited and waited, even calling out to him… but there was no reply. The boys left, save for one concerned friend who finally entered the room of toilet stalls and sinks. There was nothing peculiar about the room. It was a normal bathroom, all things considered. Quite clean, too. Nevertheless, a deep dread sat at the bottom of the boy’s stomach. He began to tremble, fighting through the fear to move towards the only closed stall at the back of the room. A dark aura resided there. He knocked on the door. “Tanaka? The bell rang, we have to go.”
Radio silence.
Noticing that the door was ajar, he pushed it further, only to reveal a blood-curdling sight. There his friend lay, writhing in a pool of his own sticky blood with a slit across his neck. The boy found himself hysterical and screaming. The blood was gushing like an avalanche that was late to a meeting, it poured and spurred, staining both boys’ clothes. In a panic, he grabbed the first things he could find to stop it: a red roll of toilet paper and his own jacket. His efforts were futile. It was too late. The dying student struggled out one last sentence before his passing. “Ah-ka.. Ma..nto…”
It was horrific to think that something similar was happening across the waters of the Sea of Japan, in Chosen (Korea). A schoolgirl, stiff and blue in the face was collapsed at the back of a bathroom with nothing but blue toilet paper by her side. Her dying words would also be ‘Aka Manto’. Thus, the legend would continue to grow, thriving further under the victims passing.
[Born from suffering]
It’d make my job easier to say that my iteration sums up most of the legend… but that’s simply not true. Aka Manto is a tree with many branches, as it was born from a tumultuous time in Japanese and Korean history. Japan and Korea were pretty much indifferent toward each other right up until the mid-1800’s, when Japan repeatedly made efforts to end Korea’s policy of isolationism. Isolationism is when a country stays out of international affairs (wars, famines etc.) that don’t concern it, it may also extend to economic consequences like barring trade from most, sometimes all countries. Usually, countries that retreat into isolationism are playing ‘defence’ as they may feel threatened by conversion or radicalisation. This was the case for Japan from 1600’s-1800’s. A domino effect played out where the US modernized Japan in 1853, so Japan sought to do the same to Korea in 1876 (Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876). Tragically, they became the very thing they were so afraid of.
Euroasia (Including Russia) was a hostile place around this time, primarily due to all the nations being power-hungry over Korea. They all wanted to spread their influence and basically take ownership of the country for themselves; this would eventually lead to the assassination of Korea’s empress, Empress Myeongseong, in 1895. Japan would come to officially annex Korea in 1910 (Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910). For the next thirty years, Korea would be known as ‘Chosen’.
What does any of this have to do with Aka Manto?
Good question! Annexation is generally an act of underhanded aggression. As such, Korea was experiencing mass cultural erasure, physical violence and slave labour from Japan. Aka Manto came about three decades into this violent annexation, and you can clearly see Korea’s influence on the legend. While it is heavily believed to have originated in Osaka, this didn’t stop Aka Manto from making it’s way overseas into Japanese-influenced areas. The period of annexation ended merely five years afterwards in 1940, but the legend remained. This means that the tale of Aka Manto was left to marinate in two different cultural melting pots for nearly a century!
[The many facets of Aka Manto]
So… Aka Manto. What’s the story?
In the back of a toilet stall (most often in schools) a being cloaked in red with a pale-white mask will offer you a choice of red toilet paper or blue toilet paper. There doesn’t seem to be any regular toilet paper there, forcing you to have to take the offer. If you choose red, you die a bloody death. If you choose blue, you die from asphyxiation. Some students try to thwart this by bringing their own toilet paper, but somehow, it vanishes upon using the last stall. Supposedly, Aka Manto is only survivable by ignoring the evil spirit or outright rejecting the options before escaping. The superstition is still rampant today, resulting in toilet stalls at the back of the room being mostly unused.
There are lesser known versions of the legend in which the students head is dunked into the toilet and drowned. In these versions, the options offered are red and yellow, as opposed to blue. I believe this version is more common in Japan as I struggle to find much, if any, Korean influence. This is mere interpretation on my part, but you could argue that Japan’s flag is reflected in the legend, especially in a time of such imperialism. Anything that is white will yellow over time (including flags).
‘Aka Manto’ translates to ‘Red Cloak’. It has many other lesser-used names, some of which being:
Akai-Kami-Aoi-Kami: Red Paper, Blue Paper
Aoi-Manto: Blue Cloak
The meaning of the word ‘manto’ has changed over time, as all words do. Studying the etymology of this word, we can see that ‘manto’ used to refer to a sleeveless jacket, similar to a kimono. Eventually it’s usage changed to refer to cloaks in the modern day. This has lead to differing appearances of the ghost.
There are some variations of the legend which are more female-focused, and instead of murder, the result is molestation. If we take a look at the time period, I believe this variation can be attributed to Japan’s awful treatment of women in their violent advancements to other countries around them. Korean women make up a large majority of the comfort women as a result of Korea’s annexation. Comfort women were a part of Japan’s slave labour efforts, in which women were forcibly employed to attend to the sexual needs of military men. Quite a number of women died due to their mistreatment. I find that the term ‘women’ is a bit too generous, as most of these women were actually minors, who couldn’t even verbalise the horrors they were being subjected to; it makes sense why this legend is based around a middle-school age group. Some depictions describe Aka Manto’s face under the mask as being charming. This could be a narrative device conveying that even well-kept men may be dangerous to young girls. Comfort women were sometimes deceived into their position by being promised a higher education or believed that they were applying for a different job entirely. The government had a huge hand in the deception at play.
[The electric fan conspiracy]
The asphyxiation is where things get a little more interesting. The first electric fan to be invented came about in 1882 by Philip Delph, eventually making their way into Korea and Japan between 1920-1930. As a developing country, Korea has been in the throes of an energy crisis for at least a century. The introduction of electric fans in a temperate zone was the last thing they needed. It is more conspiracy theory than fact, but many people claim the government spread propaganda about electric fans killing people in their sleep to curb their usage, and therefore energy consumption. This heightened-state of paranoia could explain why some variations of the legend include oxygen deprivation as a grizzly end. Even in the modern day, alleged fan deaths are regularly reported on by Korean news-outlets in the summertime.
[It’s oddly familiar, isn’t it?]
Western readers are probably already drawing parallels to a notorious figure in western folklore: Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary is a ghost that can be summoned in a darkened bathroom by chanting her name a specific number of times (usually 3, sometimes 13). She is usually depicted as being covered in blood as an intimidating, vengeful presence. In some depictions she merely appears in the mirrors reflection to scare you, in others she will scratch and disfigure the ritual participant beyond recognition. It is wildly accepted that Bloody Mary is based off of Mary the 1st, Queen of England and Ireland. Mary the 1st passed away in 1558 at the mercy of an old illness, a type of influenza. This well-predates the tale of Aka Manto, which indicates that Aka Manto could’ve evolved from Bloody Mary or a similar western legend.
It’s fun to think about it, how in our own way, we all experienced a bit of Aka Manto in our childhoods - and how in our childish naivety, all we practised these rituals for was a cheap scare. The truths behind Aka Manto and Bloody Mary are much more horrifying than any of us realised. I hope this breakdown has enlightened some people as to the horrors of Japan’s transgressions over the years. They tend to get swept under the rug by the country’s cool futuristic inventions and pop-culture crazes. Japan’s government still hasn’t formally acknowledged their role in Korea’s suffering, despite many wishing for them to do so.
We can hope that one day, they’ll get their apology.
