the country of the legend : japan

Harionago or the hook woman is a Japanese urban legend about a ghost who attacks men with her hair. In another part of Japan, locals call her Nure-Onago ("The Smiling Woman"), or Warai-Onago (The Smiling Girl)

this thing usually takes the form of a woman, with extremely long hair. that she use to control her hair like tentacles or snakes According to the variants, these are iron hooks, surrounded by barbed wire, which are hung on her hair; but in other cases, it is the hair that takes the form of these hooks.

Harionago wanders at night in cities and villages in search of men (Often young single men who walk alone), (it is said that she wanders on the roads of the Japanese prefecture of Ehime on the island of Shikoku). When she meets one, she smiles shyly at him. Attracted by her beauty and her smile, if the man smiles back, he becomes the prey of this yokai.

Indeed, the creature pounces on him, dropping all her hair, the ends of the hooks moves at a blinding speed, sinking deep into the flesh of his victim. Her strength is so great that even the strongest man can be overcome by her hooks.

Once the victim is trapped and helpless, she tears him up with her hooks and devours the remains. If the victim tries to escape, his only chance of surviving is to quickly take refuge in a building and close the door. This yokai is fast, fierce but cannot enter, it stays outside and disappears with the sunrise, leaving laceration marks on the door

One night, a young man from Yamada village, after a long study session wanted to go home. When he turned into a dark alley as a shortcut, a beautiful girl walked towards him walking normally

As she approached him, he noticed that she was smiling at him amicably. He obviously thought it was strange at first (Smile at strangers), but he was attracted by her appearance and returned a big smile. When this is done, her long hair fell in disorder and she threw herself on him

The shocked young man struggled to free himself from her claws. Her hair rose like tentacles and her hooks planted in his T-shirt, scratching him in the process. In a way, he managed to free himself, then ran as fast as possible to get home as quickly as possible. He locked the door behind him and remained motionless, trembling like a leaf, waiting for dawn to arrive .

in the morning, when the young man dared to open the door, he discovered hundreds of deep scratches on the other side of the door