There's More to The 8 Foot Monster Woman

Hachishakusama is famous as Japan’s eight-foot-tall woman: a pale, towering figure who stalks young people and calls out with a strange “po… po… po…”But the supposed ancient legend appears to begin in 2008 — even though Japanese folklore already contained some remarkably similar giant women.Hachishakusama, or the “Eight-Shaku Woman”, is often treated as a traditional Japanese yōkai, yet her recorded history leads back to a single anonymous 2channel post from 26 August 2008. That makes her a modern internet legend — but perhaps not one created from nothing. Long before Hachishakusama appeared online, folklorist Kunio Yanagita recorded enormous women in Japanese mountain traditions, including figures around seven or eight shaku tall. Yamauba, or yamamba, could also be gigantic, dangerous and connected with remote places and children, while the Edo-period Taka-onna offers another striking image of an impossibly tall woman. Then, only months after Hachishakusama appeared, Slender Man emerged from another internet forum. The similarities raise a bigger question: when does an invented horror story become genuine folklore?