Okiku: The Haunted Doll

While dolls can sometimes seem creepy, people generally do not fear them, or believe that they will be harmed by them. However, with films like Annabelle, Child’s Play, and now M3GAN—a story about a childlike robot doll with a murderous taste for blood—some people will never look at a doll the same way ever again. Stories about creepy dolls have existed throughout the ages and are not just limited to the imaginations of Hollywood’s brilliant scriptwriters. In fact, one of the most well-known tales comes from Japan. It is the story of Okiku, the doll whose hair grew unexplainedly.

The story begins in 1918 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. A 17-year-old boy named Eikichi Suzuki was visiting a marine exhibit in the area and happened to see the doll in a shop window. He knew at once that the doll was meant for his 2-year-old sister Okiku. The young man purchased the doll and presented it to his sister when he returned home. The young girl immediately fell in love with it.

The doll stood approximately 16 inches tall and was dressed in a beautiful plum-colored kimono. Her jet-black hair was shoulder length, cut in the traditional style. She had piercing eyes, like black beads pressed into her flawless porcelain white face. She was beautiful and soon became Okiku’s favorite toy and, it would seem, her best friend. She named it after herself, “Okiku,” and played with it every day—it was never out of her sight.

Sadly, the little girl developed a severe fever and passed away a year later at the age of three. The family originally planned to bury the doll with the child, but due to some unforeseen circumstance, the doll was never placed with Okiku in her final resting place. Instead it was placed on the family’s altar to commemorate the young girl who had passed away. Sometime thereafter, the family noticed that the doll’s hair was getting longer. The doll’s traditional shoulder length hair had grown down to its waist. The family revered the doll for they believed that their daughter’s spirit inhabited its body.

The family moved away in 1938, but did not take the doll with them. They were certain that the doll’s “magic” was linked to its proximity to their daughter’s final resting place. They left the doll with the priest at Mannenji Temple in Iwamizawa City, Hokkaido. They informed the priest about the doll’s hair and he, over time, confirmed that the story was true. The doll’s hair did indeed grow. Periodically, the priest would trim the doll’s hair and soon photos of the doll with different lengths of hair began to adorn the small shrine dedicated to Okiku the doll and to the memory of the deceased girl.

Today, the doll’s hair is allowed to grow until it reaches knee length, then it is trimmed back to just below the shoulder. The doll’s hair has been growing for over 100 years.