Uncanny Japan
SpectreVision Radio
Uncanny Japan is a podcast about all the more obscure corners of old Japan, from strange superstitions, cultural curiosities, to creepy creatures. Here you can discover all the lesser known gems that author Thersa Matsuura digs up while doing research for her writing. Every episode is uniquely soothing, brought to life by immersive sound design or relaxing binaural soundscapes (ocean waves, autumn crickets, rice field frogs) all recorded right here in Japan.
Thersa Matsuura is a writer, folklorist, and graduate of the Clarion West workshop. Drawing on her over thirty-five years of living in Japan, she is the author of The Book of Japanese Folklore. Her horror short story collection (The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales) was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Her forthcoming works include the Yokai Oracle Deck (Fall, 2025) and Legends of Japanese Mythology (Eyes Wide Editions, 2026).
SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.
spectrevisionradio.com
linktr.ee/spectrevision
Thersa Matsuura is a writer, folklorist, and graduate of the Clarion West workshop. Drawing on her over thirty-five years of living in Japan, she is the author of The Book of Japanese Folklore. Her horror short story collection (The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales) was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Her forthcoming works include the Yokai Oracle Deck (Fall, 2025) and Legends of Japanese Mythology (Eyes Wide Editions, 2026).
SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.
spectrevisionradio.com
linktr.ee/spectrevision
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 12, 2026 • 21min
Never Say Monkey! Japan's Strangest Mountain Superstitions (Ep. 201)
What happens if you say "monkey" before entering the mountains? Why shouldn't you sing or whistle in the forest? And what on earth is wrong with pointing at a snake?
As I prepare for a long road trip north through Japan, I'm digging into some wonderfully strange regional superstitions from Tōhoku and Hokkaidō. From mountain gods with strong opinions about music to forbidden bear names, sacred trees, and a mine deity whose guard dog apparently has a wandering ear, these old beliefs offer a funny, fascinating glimpse into a world where the mountains were alive, the animals were listening, and one wrong word might bring misfortune. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 29, 2026 • 40min
The Lost Wolves of Japan: Gods, Guardians, and Ghosts (Ep. 200) -from the archives
Once, wolves roamed the mountains of Japan—not simply as predators, but as protectors, messengers of the gods, and sometimes gods themselves.
For this special archive episode, I’ve combined two earlier Uncanny Japan episodes into one extended journey through the history and folklore of the Japanese wolf, or ōkami. We’ll explore their extinction, old wolf shrines and wolf worship, Yamato Takeru’s mysterious white wolf, the eerie okuri-inu that follows travelers through the mountains, and stories of wolves that protected, warned, guided…and occasionally ate those who weren’t careful.
And then there’s the question some people are still asking today:
Are Japan’s wolves really gone? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 14, 2026 • 20min
The Yōkai That Drops from the Trees *squish*: Tsurube Otoshi
The cicadas are fading, the bell crickets are singing, and autumn is beginning to creep into Japan. There’s an old saying: aki no hi wa tsurube otoshi—“an autumn day falls like a well bucket”—describing how suddenly darkness arrives this time of year.
But Tsurube Otoshi is also the name of a very strange yōkai.
Depending on where you are, it might be a well bucket dropping from an old tree, a mysterious ball of fire, a severed head, or something waiting above the road to haul unlucky travelers into the branches and eat them.
This episode: bell crickets, autumn insect listening, old Japanese sayings, and one wonderfully bizarre yōkai that gives you another reason to look up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 31, 2026 • 25min
Folklore Story Time: The Sea Monster of the Oki Islands (Ep. 198)
This episode is story time. We’re traveling to the remote Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan for an old Japanese tale collected by Richard Gordon Smith in his 1908 book Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan.
When young Tokoyo sets out to find her banished father, her journey leads her to an island haunted by a terrible tradition: every year, a young woman must be sacrificed to a mysterious creature beneath the sea. Tokoyo decides to do something about it.
A tale of courage, curses, sea monsters, and one very determined daughter.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 17, 2026 • 27min
100 Ghost Stories in the Dark: Why Summer Is Ghost Season in Japan (Ep. 197)
In Japan, ghosts don’t wait for October.
Summer—especially the hot, humid weeks around Obon—has long been the season for ghost stories, strange encounters, and deliberately scaring yourself silly.
In this episode of Uncanny Japan, we’ll sit down for hyakumonogatari, the old practice of telling one hundred frightening stories while extinguishing candles one by one. We’ll look at summer ghost plays on the kabuki stage, venture out for a kimodameshi test of courage, and step inside an obakeyashiki, Japan’s own style of haunted house.
Along the way: cicadas, cemeteries, mysterious extra ghosts, haunted tea houses, and some very questionable decisions made after midnight.
Then we’ll finish with a wonderfully gruesome story from the 1677 collection Shokoku Hyakumonogatari, featuring a nameless creature with eyes in the palms of its hands—and a young man who really should have stayed home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 3, 2026 • 35min
How to Welcome the Dead Home: Obon in Japan (Ep. 196)
Every Obon, Japan’s ancestral spirits return home—guided by tiny fires and carried on cucumber horses. This year, for the first time, I’m responsible for preparing my father-in-law’s family altar. Join me for cauldron lids, lost ghosts, strange noises in an old house, eggplant cows, and the rituals used to welcome the dead home and send them safely away again.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 20, 2026 • 44min
Creepy Story Time: "By the Japanese Sea" -- Lafcadio Hearn
On the final days of Obon, fishermen along Japan’s western coast once believed the sea belonged to the dead.
In this episode, I read Lafcadio Hearn’s eerie and beautiful essay “By the Japanese Sea.” Along the journey, we encounter drowned spirits rising from the waves, cats carried aboard fishing boats to ward off ghosts, delicate straw vessels made for lost souls, and a haunted futon whispering in the voices of two freezing children.
This reading originally appeared as one of the bedtime stories shared with Uncanny Japan Patreon supporters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 7, 2026 • 19min
Tanabata: Star-Crossed Lovers (Ep.55) -- From the Vault
A short Tanabata tale from the Uncanny Vault: Orihime the weaving princess, Hikoboshi the cowherd, and the river of stars that keeps them apart. On the seventh night of the seventh month, wishes are written on colorful strips of paper, tied to bamboo, and sent into the summer sky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 7, 2026 • 29min
Childhood Incantations: Engacho, Pain Magic, & Severed Pinkies! (Ep. 194)
Two little boys find a dead bird on a mountain path. One accidentally touches it with his shoe, and suddenly the invisible contagion begins. Fingers cross. A circle is made. A hand chops through it. “Engacho!”
In this episode of Uncanny Japan, we explore the everyday magic words and protective spells of childhood in Japan. There’s engacho, used to cut away contamination, bad luck, and all things spiritually “yucky.” There’s kuwabara kuwabara, a charm against thunder and lightning. Tsuru kame tsuru kame cancels out bad omens, while yubikiri genman turns a pinky promise into something surprisingly violent. And finally, chichin pui pui makes pain fly away.
Part playground game, part folk magic, part tiny exorcism, these little phrases show how children turn fear, disgust, pain, danger, and promises into ritual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 17, 2026 • 16min
Utsuro-Bune: The Hollow Ship Revisited (Ep. 193)
In 1803, fishermen on Japan’s Hitachi coast spotted something round and unfamiliar drifting offshore. They hauled the hollow vessel onto the beach—and discovered a mysterious young woman inside.
Step into the story as one of those fishermen. Examine the vessel’s clouded windows and iron-plated hull, hear the woman speak in a language no one understands, and watch as she fiercely protects a box she refuses to surrender. Who was she, what was hidden inside—and why did the villagers send her back out to sea? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
