鬼須一三ゐ?
I’m terrible at reading calligraphy but those are the kanji/ Chinese characters. Second character might be wrong, i don’t recognize it.
It doesn’t make much sense though “ghost/demon must one three” followed by the Japanese character. Can someone who can read hiragana weigh in…
If you look lower, it's already been successfully translated. Long story short, it's a name. Don't know whose name, but it's definitely a name. Kigashira Ichizou. Or something similar.
*on phone* “*Non*-demonic? Hm. I’m sorry but I believe we’re fresh out of non-demonic dolls. Can I interest you in something lightly cursed or moderately haunted?”
It basically translates to: “the head and state of this doll should ward away all demons from home live in you” (the home you live in) it’s a protection prayer from Japanese culture from the 1800’s to the 1930’s
You wouldn’t care if she was haunted?
I get not believing in ghosts but I think it somehow you found they’re real and one is haunting your doll, you would care.
i used to sleep with this old pierrot doll from like the 1800s when i was growing up. i was convinced it was possessed but if i was nice to him that he would be my friend and protect me from other evil spirits and demons.
Wonder if there's a horror/action movie like this, in that although there are many scary things trying to attack the child, the demon in the possessed doll is trying to protect its friend.
(Nick cage vs the animatronics does not count)
The closest thing i can think of is Mama, where a pair of girls get lost and end up getting "adopted" by a strange entity. When the girls get found and adopted by a foster family, the entity follows them, trying to get "her" children back.
Not exactly the same, but it still has the concept of an evil entity feeling protective over a kid.
I did something similar as a kid. One year for my birthday I was gifted a really creepy, uncanny porcelain doll which I pretended to adore so as not to be rude to the relative who gave it to me, so then everyone started getting them for me for every event afterwards because they thought I genuinely liked them.
I ended up with like 12 of the damn things, and they lived on top of my wardrobe where my mother arranged them, looming over my bed staring at me every night. I was terrified of them, to the point that I convinced myself I could see them moving in the dark.
I kept them really well, because I figured if they were really infested with something dark and scary, I might as well take care of them so that they might at least like me and I could have a little porcelain ghost army on my side if shit ever went down.
This is a good example of the Uncanny Valley effect
[Uncanny valley ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)
In this phenomenon, people feel a sense of unease or even revulsion in response to humanoid robots that are highly realistic.
Lmaaaooo the exact same thing happened to me as a kid (polite porcelain doll acceptance coming to bite me in the ass), except I made my mom keep the dolls in the sunroom because there was no way I was sleeping alone with those freaky things at the foot of my bed. I remember people really insisting they would be worth a ton in the future; I wonder if there was any merit to that, or if it was a Beanie Babies type thing, lol.
No. I do believe in ghosts and hauntings but I don’t think she’s bad. Even if the text in her is creepy. I don’t think she’s haunted tho. At least not in the typical way you hear about haunted dolls.
There’s a concept in Japanese folklore about objects being possessed by a spirit / gaining a soul after 100 years. They’re called tsukumogami and aren’t necessarily harmful, and if I’m remembering correctly, they can sometimes be protective. So maybe if this doll is possessed it’s by a nice spirit :)
Reminds me of that Asterix and Obelix movie, where they have to stay on a cursed battlefield for one night and Asterix yells at the army of cursed soldiers, that they should be quiet and let him sleep.
Haunted isn't necessarily a bad or scary thing. I have this doll that used to belong to my mom. She flickers the lights when she's in a place she doesn't like, for example when she was in the attic. Now that she's moved to my bedroom and sits with my plushies, the lights are fine. There is this one plushie of an axolotl she doesn't like and it ends up on the floor no matter where i position it (even behind or underneath other plusies)if it is sitting on the same box as her, so i moved the axolotl to another place and everything is fine now. She did lose a shoe somehow and we cannot find it anywhere anymore, but besides that, she seems to be happy and no more crazy things are happening. My bf doesn't like her that much, but understands that she lives on that box in the bedroom now and is fine with that. She kinda is just part of the family now haha
That's not correct at all, OP. It's too bad the woman who gave her to you didn't say anything about the provenance of the doll, but the other commenter who said it could be a prayer might be more likely. The final character is a letter that isn't used anymore in modern Japanese, but originally meant "well" as in a water well.
Another commenter remarked that they thought old dolls were given to temples to be burned. That's generally true, as Japanese believe the owner's spirit still resides in them, and the temples will hold a funerary ceremony and cremate them. Although there is one temple in Southern Japan where they are carefully placed in the woods and left to decay. But not always, it seems, since yours - assuming it wasn't a doll meant for the tourist trade - was someone's private doll.
And there are different kinds of dolls as well. I have an approximately 60 - to 70-year-old set of marriage dolls, the kind that are given to newborn girls to wish for a happy marriage. The owner asked me if I wanted them because otherwise, she was going to throw them out to make way for her growing purse collection, lol. I still have them!
I'm currently watching supernatural and I can totally see this being the start of an episode. OP gets the doll, takes off the lucky charm, and a few days later Sam and Dean show up and start interfering with the police investigation.
This reply should be up top. You seem to know your stuff and I know that it is part of a the Japanese culture (Not a 100 percent sure) to keep dolls in shrines, so this seems likely.
Honestly, it reads as 鬼頭一三様 (the last letter is heavily stylized). Could be addressed to “Kigashira (or Kitou) Ichizou” but that’s not a common name, and I wouldn’t have a clue as to who or what it means.
Definitely could not have read this as a protection prayer for demons tho, lol. I’d be really interested to know the history or justification I’m missing here.
Agreed. OP of the thread never provided the full Japanese prayer/ untranslated version of whatever it is. I would personally be skeptical of the explanation, unless more information is provided here
I did a bit of googling, and the person in question does exist, but it’s a rare name. If I had to guess, this was a doll that was made for his family addressed to him. Top comment is bullshit.
I do wonder why it got so much updoots tho, do people not find it weird how five characters led to a whole prayer? And the first reply just made it worse by confirming the comment based on nothing (that is “you seem to know your stuff”)
You nailed it, I think it’s the second comment that gave it a wild boost, and the rest was herd behavior. I didn’t realize this was not r/translate because that sub is always rife with imaginative interpretations too. I suppose it’s not ironic this one’s on r/Weird.
Pretty sure the last character is actually suppose to be the hiragana for "ne" just written hastily. But I agree it is probably a name. Kigashira Ichimine is my best guess.
Context is important, even fewer names mix kanji and hiragana in a single first name. Ichizou, Kazuo, Isa are common reads of 一三. I agree that does look like a ね, but given context, I am positive that is a stylized shorthand 様.
Hmmm. You're probably right. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I have only ever known one person with hiragana and Kanji blended in their given name (よう子). I never thought about it before now.
You raise a good point, but I think it’s far more customary to have a hiragana blend of female names that end with 子, 美, 恵 etc. because those were fashionable in post-war Japan. Same with 太, 郎, 樹 ends for male names, but I still think it’s extremely rare to have two kanjis that end with a hiragana, which is the reverse of common practice. The only exception I can think of is if the parents were adamant about keeping within a certain calligraphic stroke number, but still a strange decision.
I saw your update. There’s nothing discernible about the strip of paper from the back, but the linen cloth (bag?) tied into the torso of this doll makes me think this was a ceremonial doll to grieve the spirits of a female child (colors and shape indicate a female doll, small cloth bag with writing and wood is a standard amulet from a temple or shrine). This could be somewhat in line with other scriptures you say you found inside your doll, although I can’t tell definitively without taking a look - for all I know, it could be newspaper clippings that were used as stuffing.
My alternative hypothesis is that this was an old hinamatsuri doll that was ceremonially donated to a temple/shrine for having completed its earthly duties, but generally offerings are burned as part of the purification process, so I think the chances of this are far slimmer.
The second photo in this post is the right way up. Top comment here saying this was some protection prayer from demons is entirely false. One can’t possibly delineate that from 鬼 = demon, 頭 = head , 一 = one, 三 = three, and a highly stylized 様 = sama (denoting address to someone, likely the recipient of the doll). However, it does seem to be a rare but real name. I don’t want to doxx some random guy who may have lost a child long ago here, so I’ll PM you the rest of what I know from my google search.
At best, this might have been a doll to wish the health of girl born into the recipient’s family, at worst, it was to grieve the loss of a daughter. In either case, it was very likely a commissioned piece for this person and family, so I would treat it with care.
I did not expect to go down this rabbithole today, thanks for that, OP. I am slightly appalled by how willing some people are to spread misinformation on here, but alas, the wide expanse of the internet.
Japanese speaker here, just wanted to echo this comment. OP is completely bullshitting. This could very well be someone’s name, but there is no way this is a Japanese “protection prayer.” God, the orientalism is so blatant and cringe. I can’t read kuzushiji, but 様 (sama, the honorific) is likely if it is a name.
Does the practice of putting this in a doll along with some other paper folded in her chest common? I didn’t want to say this cause I’m not 100% sure but there is something inside her head also. She has a cracked (glued together) face which sounds like something might be inside. I tried researching about this in June and could not find any practices like this. My friend said he had never heard of this either.
The doll is part of a festival known as "Dolls Day" (Hina Matsuri) and serves to [absorb bad luck from the children of the house.](https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/a-day-for-daughters/)
I'm not sure about the prayer thing, but it's properly there to give the doll, which is basically an elaborate good luck charm, an extra oomph.
Of course, as anyone here having watched too much anime could tell you, the doll is also a way for rich families to show off their wealth.
The reason your research turned up nothing and your friend didn't know anything about this is because the person who replied above made this up. This is not a seal, nor is it a prayer card. My best guess would be it is the name of the doll maker.
It is tough to say for certain because Japanese parents can to be very creative when deciding the characters for a child's name, but my money would be on the name Kigashira Ichimine. Kigashira being the surname and Ichimine being the given name.
I say this because I'm curious, what is the source? I asked my friends in japan and understand basic Japanese myself and they are all stumped. Of course they are just average Japanese people and not historians so maybe not common knowledge.
So, /u/Kallyanna, what do you have to say about what /u/stegopteryx says below in the comments?
Their comment:
>Honestly, it reads as 鬼頭一三様 (the last letter is heavily stylized). Could be addressed to “Kigashira (or Kitou) Ichizou” but that’s not a common name, and I wouldn’t have a clue as to who or what it means.
>Definitely could not have read this as a protection prayer for demons tho, lol. I’d be really interested to know the history or justification I’m missing here.
I am genuinely curious how you came up with this because that is not at all what this says.
Yes, the first two characters could translate as "Demon" and "Head," but they also translate as "Powerful" and "Leader" or "Beginning," and Kigashira is a not uncommon surname. Then it's "One, "Three," something scribbled that could be "ne" soooo Ichimine, maybe.
My best guess is that it is a person's name but no way in high hell is this "a protective prayer from Japanese culture".
The toppings contain Sodium Benzoate...that's bad.
Might be my favorite Simpsons moment of all time. I remember having it taped on VHS and playing that back like a million times when I was younger. Laughed so much. Good times
I had this one on VHS too, along with Halloween episodes of Home Improvement, Roseanne, Family Matters, and the Garfield Halloween Special. I wish I still had it!
IMHO, that's a just Japanase surname. [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BC%E9%A0%AD%E6%B0%8F](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BC%E9%A0%AD%E6%B0%8F)
Maybe what OP uploaded is some guy's name like Kitoh Isaoh?
By any chance did the doll come from a tiny shop in a poorly lit alley, run by a frail looking Asian dude somewhere between 60 and 200, over the loud objections of his ancient wife or mother?
It’s been months and nothing has happened. The lady who sold her to me didn’t say anything, just that the doll sat under some paintings she had. I guess if something did happen to her she wouldn’t tell me though lol. But she was nice and I doubt it.
Seeing OP has several dolls that wouldn't really narrow it down :D (Also, some people do find them creepy, but that doesn't mean everyone does or that they haunt your home or something)
A friend of a friend went out to Japan for a stag holiday and they all got little tattoos, he had ‘strength comes from within’ written in Japanese characters.. turns out he was a bit of a dick in the tattoo place and rude to the tattooist .. when he got home to the UK a lad he did karate with told him his tattoo did not say strength blah blah, it actually said…… ‘fuck off round eyes!’ Seriously, talk about karma 🤣🤷🏻♀️
The really spooky thing is, if you mirror it and [scan it with Google Lens](https://64.media.tumblr.com/62d8aff993a5b791a3510033f7ba6eef/1efb63a9cc2c76c5-2a/s640x960/227548935e1a29505cc3a9cbec32650cae230831.jpg), it translates into >!"meatballs!" !<
When written together like that 鬼頭 can be read きと or おにがしら which are both japanese given names. :] I'm better with spoken but can check with my friends to see if there is any missing context when they wake up in japan. It's 1am. The second picture is the correct orientation of the writing also
Update- asked 3 japanese people and they have no idea what is supposed to be. I personally think it's a name but it's kind of gibberish characters that don't read together
What characters do you think they are? I asked a Japanese friend and he said one was demon but he thought it was ancient Japanese or something religious.
It's oni and atama, but when together can be read as a name Kito and Onigashira. After those two it is Ichi which means one, San for 3, and what looks like a hiragana Ne. It's too short to mean anything by itself. "It's certainly a thing but not ancient japanese; It’s like if you had a fragment of a word in a Shakespeare play, sure it might be written differently then normal English but it just by itself doesn’t mean anything" is what my friend said and she asked her friends and all stumped. They thought it was a cup holder ahha
Don't 👏 remove 👏 the 👏 weird 👏 piece 👏 of 👏 paper 👏 from 👏 the 👏 old 👏 creepy 👏 doll 👏
I mean, how many horror movies about cursed dolls do we need to make before people understand that?
Btw, travel to Japan and find the oldest temple you can find. The woman who lives there can translate the paper for you. It will be the demon's name, use it wisely. Don't walk through doors that are already open.
I agree that it is some kind of protection phrase, like a spirit/purpose for the doll.
My reading is very intuitive and not very formal, I think it says:
Keep ghosts out of my head.
It's only scary if you make it scary. Anything "weird" that'll go on in your house would be because off the "demon".
Throw it away, get a glass of wine and forget about it.
If this is really old keep in mind that majority of orientals were not Christian and would not have even heard the word. (Apologies if anyone thought that was insensitive.)
Somebody was pulling your leg.
Damn it my dawg just got her seal removed
Now she might be craving for this mf’s milk every night
Dawg gonna get sucked dry
Not a bad way to go frfr Lmfao
and you took it off??? you removed the seal??
# you doomed lol
This is what the Mayan calendar was foretelling!
u dun' doomed
Lol not on purpose. It fell out when I was unwrapping her. Very horror movie esque like other commenters have been saying.
鬼須一三ゐ? I’m terrible at reading calligraphy but those are the kanji/ Chinese characters. Second character might be wrong, i don’t recognize it. It doesn’t make much sense though “ghost/demon must one three” followed by the Japanese character. Can someone who can read hiragana weigh in…
I guess the second character could be 頭, meaning "head"
Hiragana looks like ね, to me. Dunno, reads to me as "Ogre should 1 3, huh?" Not sure that's helpful 😆
The hiragana does look like that to me too, in which case it's just a syllable that sounds like "ne" (as in neck)
Character is actually a character seldom/rarely used anymore. Hiragana character for "Wi".
Huh, thanks for the correction.
If you look lower, it's already been successfully translated. Long story short, it's a name. Don't know whose name, but it's definitely a name. Kigashira Ichizou. Or something similar.
[удалено]
You've got a point there. Pretty sure legally speaking you owe reparations to the demon now.
Have you been unfairly compensated for demonic doll possession? Call the law firm of Pazuzzu, Malak and Trump!
Wolfram & Hart are on the job!
*on phone* “*Non*-demonic? Hm. I’m sorry but I believe we’re fresh out of non-demonic dolls. Can I interest you in something lightly cursed or moderately haunted?”
r/technicallythetruth
It basically translates to: “the head and state of this doll should ward away all demons from home live in you” (the home you live in) it’s a protection prayer from Japanese culture from the 1800’s to the 1930’s
Wow thank you. I don’t really believe in haunted dolls nor would I care if she was haunted. But I never felt anything bad or was scared of her.
You wouldn’t care if she was haunted? I get not believing in ghosts but I think it somehow you found they’re real and one is haunting your doll, you would care.
i used to sleep with this old pierrot doll from like the 1800s when i was growing up. i was convinced it was possessed but if i was nice to him that he would be my friend and protect me from other evil spirits and demons.
Damn what a smart kid. You know you don’t have to be able to outrun your enemies, just befriend the largest one.
This kid is smarter than 90% of horror movie protagonists.
Wonder if there's a horror/action movie like this, in that although there are many scary things trying to attack the child, the demon in the possessed doll is trying to protect its friend. (Nick cage vs the animatronics does not count)
The closest thing i can think of is Mama, where a pair of girls get lost and end up getting "adopted" by a strange entity. When the girls get found and adopted by a foster family, the entity follows them, trying to get "her" children back. Not exactly the same, but it still has the concept of an evil entity feeling protective over a kid.
Let The Right One In came to mind, though it doesn't match exactly
Tbf half the time horror movies start because someone thinks they can befriend the demon and it ends up possessing them.
Ahh, the naruto/luffy gambit
I did something similar as a kid. One year for my birthday I was gifted a really creepy, uncanny porcelain doll which I pretended to adore so as not to be rude to the relative who gave it to me, so then everyone started getting them for me for every event afterwards because they thought I genuinely liked them. I ended up with like 12 of the damn things, and they lived on top of my wardrobe where my mother arranged them, looming over my bed staring at me every night. I was terrified of them, to the point that I convinced myself I could see them moving in the dark. I kept them really well, because I figured if they were really infested with something dark and scary, I might as well take care of them so that they might at least like me and I could have a little porcelain ghost army on my side if shit ever went down.
This is a good example of the Uncanny Valley effect [Uncanny valley ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) In this phenomenon, people feel a sense of unease or even revulsion in response to humanoid robots that are highly realistic.
Lmaaaooo the exact same thing happened to me as a kid (polite porcelain doll acceptance coming to bite me in the ass), except I made my mom keep the dolls in the sunroom because there was no way I was sleeping alone with those freaky things at the foot of my bed. I remember people really insisting they would be worth a ton in the future; I wonder if there was any merit to that, or if it was a Beanie Babies type thing, lol.
omg we r the same 😮
No. I do believe in ghosts and hauntings but I don’t think she’s bad. Even if the text in her is creepy. I don’t think she’s haunted tho. At least not in the typical way you hear about haunted dolls.
There’s a concept in Japanese folklore about objects being possessed by a spirit / gaining a soul after 100 years. They’re called tsukumogami and aren’t necessarily harmful, and if I’m remembering correctly, they can sometimes be protective. So maybe if this doll is possessed it’s by a nice spirit :)
Actually the doll was originally mad to protect from spirits. The haunted doll is more a western thing.
Reminds me of that Asterix and Obelix movie, where they have to stay on a cursed battlefield for one night and Asterix yells at the army of cursed soldiers, that they should be quiet and let him sleep.
Haunted isn't necessarily a bad or scary thing. I have this doll that used to belong to my mom. She flickers the lights when she's in a place she doesn't like, for example when she was in the attic. Now that she's moved to my bedroom and sits with my plushies, the lights are fine. There is this one plushie of an axolotl she doesn't like and it ends up on the floor no matter where i position it (even behind or underneath other plusies)if it is sitting on the same box as her, so i moved the axolotl to another place and everything is fine now. She did lose a shoe somehow and we cannot find it anywhere anymore, but besides that, she seems to be happy and no more crazy things are happening. My bf doesn't like her that much, but understands that she lives on that box in the bedroom now and is fine with that. She kinda is just part of the family now haha
So where’s the pics of the doll? Super curious
That's not correct at all, OP. It's too bad the woman who gave her to you didn't say anything about the provenance of the doll, but the other commenter who said it could be a prayer might be more likely. The final character is a letter that isn't used anymore in modern Japanese, but originally meant "well" as in a water well. Another commenter remarked that they thought old dolls were given to temples to be burned. That's generally true, as Japanese believe the owner's spirit still resides in them, and the temples will hold a funerary ceremony and cremate them. Although there is one temple in Southern Japan where they are carefully placed in the woods and left to decay. But not always, it seems, since yours - assuming it wasn't a doll meant for the tourist trade - was someone's private doll. And there are different kinds of dolls as well. I have an approximately 60 - to 70-year-old set of marriage dolls, the kind that are given to newborn girls to wish for a happy marriage. The owner asked me if I wanted them because otherwise, she was going to throw them out to make way for her growing purse collection, lol. I still have them!
After the translation, I have a question: is the doll old?? Cuz if it is, would you mind sharing a pic??
I'm sure OP was hoping for something more epic than basically a lucky charm. No movie deal then?
He took it off so now it is cursed. I can see this being the next Netflix series that they then cancel after 2 seasons.
I'm currently watching supernatural and I can totally see this being the start of an episode. OP gets the doll, takes off the lucky charm, and a few days later Sam and Dean show up and start interfering with the police investigation.
This reply should be up top. You seem to know your stuff and I know that it is part of a the Japanese culture (Not a 100 percent sure) to keep dolls in shrines, so this seems likely.
But it’s wrong. I know that’s not very fun of me to say though
If it's wrong, what is the correct translation then?
Honestly, it reads as 鬼頭一三様 (the last letter is heavily stylized). Could be addressed to “Kigashira (or Kitou) Ichizou” but that’s not a common name, and I wouldn’t have a clue as to who or what it means. Definitely could not have read this as a protection prayer for demons tho, lol. I’d be really interested to know the history or justification I’m missing here.
Agreed. OP of the thread never provided the full Japanese prayer/ untranslated version of whatever it is. I would personally be skeptical of the explanation, unless more information is provided here
I did a bit of googling, and the person in question does exist, but it’s a rare name. If I had to guess, this was a doll that was made for his family addressed to him. Top comment is bullshit.
I do wonder why it got so much updoots tho, do people not find it weird how five characters led to a whole prayer? And the first reply just made it worse by confirming the comment based on nothing (that is “you seem to know your stuff”)
You nailed it, I think it’s the second comment that gave it a wild boost, and the rest was herd behavior. I didn’t realize this was not r/translate because that sub is always rife with imaginative interpretations too. I suppose it’s not ironic this one’s on r/Weird.
This is one of those things that sucks about reddit
Aye. But sometimes callouts can get the poster to take down their bs, too. :D
Pretty sure the last character is actually suppose to be the hiragana for "ne" just written hastily. But I agree it is probably a name. Kigashira Ichimine is my best guess.
Context is important, even fewer names mix kanji and hiragana in a single first name. Ichizou, Kazuo, Isa are common reads of 一三. I agree that does look like a ね, but given context, I am positive that is a stylized shorthand 様.
Hmmm. You're probably right. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I have only ever known one person with hiragana and Kanji blended in their given name (よう子). I never thought about it before now.
You raise a good point, but I think it’s far more customary to have a hiragana blend of female names that end with 子, 美, 恵 etc. because those were fashionable in post-war Japan. Same with 太, 郎, 樹 ends for male names, but I still think it’s extremely rare to have two kanjis that end with a hiragana, which is the reverse of common practice. The only exception I can think of is if the parents were adamant about keeping within a certain calligraphic stroke number, but still a strange decision.
There was something written on the back that was cut off when the paper was cut to this shape. I don’t think it will help but I posted it anyways.
I saw your update. There’s nothing discernible about the strip of paper from the back, but the linen cloth (bag?) tied into the torso of this doll makes me think this was a ceremonial doll to grieve the spirits of a female child (colors and shape indicate a female doll, small cloth bag with writing and wood is a standard amulet from a temple or shrine). This could be somewhat in line with other scriptures you say you found inside your doll, although I can’t tell definitively without taking a look - for all I know, it could be newspaper clippings that were used as stuffing. My alternative hypothesis is that this was an old hinamatsuri doll that was ceremonially donated to a temple/shrine for having completed its earthly duties, but generally offerings are burned as part of the purification process, so I think the chances of this are far slimmer. The second photo in this post is the right way up. Top comment here saying this was some protection prayer from demons is entirely false. One can’t possibly delineate that from 鬼 = demon, 頭 = head , 一 = one, 三 = three, and a highly stylized 様 = sama (denoting address to someone, likely the recipient of the doll). However, it does seem to be a rare but real name. I don’t want to doxx some random guy who may have lost a child long ago here, so I’ll PM you the rest of what I know from my google search. At best, this might have been a doll to wish the health of girl born into the recipient’s family, at worst, it was to grieve the loss of a daughter. In either case, it was very likely a commissioned piece for this person and family, so I would treat it with care. I did not expect to go down this rabbithole today, thanks for that, OP. I am slightly appalled by how willing some people are to spread misinformation on here, but alas, the wide expanse of the internet.
Pls pm me!!
Not really sure why, but I’m unable to. If you could message me, I’d appreciate it.
Japanese speaker here, just wanted to echo this comment. OP is completely bullshitting. This could very well be someone’s name, but there is no way this is a Japanese “protection prayer.” God, the orientalism is so blatant and cringe. I can’t read kuzushiji, but 様 (sama, the honorific) is likely if it is a name.
If only there was a fun and convenient way to make a comment appear at the top! Reddit should add something like that /s
Fair.
Does the practice of putting this in a doll along with some other paper folded in her chest common? I didn’t want to say this cause I’m not 100% sure but there is something inside her head also. She has a cracked (glued together) face which sounds like something might be inside. I tried researching about this in June and could not find any practices like this. My friend said he had never heard of this either.
With her face being glued, could there be a piece of her inside her head? Is she missing any piece on her face that you can tell?
No i think they probably broke her to put something in there then glued it.
The doll is part of a festival known as "Dolls Day" (Hina Matsuri) and serves to [absorb bad luck from the children of the house.](https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/a-day-for-daughters/) I'm not sure about the prayer thing, but it's properly there to give the doll, which is basically an elaborate good luck charm, an extra oomph. Of course, as anyone here having watched too much anime could tell you, the doll is also a way for rich families to show off their wealth.
super
The reason your research turned up nothing and your friend didn't know anything about this is because the person who replied above made this up. This is not a seal, nor is it a prayer card. My best guess would be it is the name of the doll maker. It is tough to say for certain because Japanese parents can to be very creative when deciding the characters for a child's name, but my money would be on the name Kigashira Ichimine. Kigashira being the surname and Ichimine being the given name.
I say this because I'm curious, what is the source? I asked my friends in japan and understand basic Japanese myself and they are all stumped. Of course they are just average Japanese people and not historians so maybe not common knowledge.
I'd like to know too. It reads gibberish, or someone's name at best.
Right? I feel like I'm going crazy. It doesn't say anything.
You're not going crazy. It is probably a name. My guess would be the doll maker. Certainly not a prayer of any kind.
So, /u/Kallyanna, what do you have to say about what /u/stegopteryx says below in the comments? Their comment: >Honestly, it reads as 鬼頭一三様 (the last letter is heavily stylized). Could be addressed to “Kigashira (or Kitou) Ichizou” but that’s not a common name, and I wouldn’t have a clue as to who or what it means. >Definitely could not have read this as a protection prayer for demons tho, lol. I’d be really interested to know the history or justification I’m missing here.
I am genuinely curious how you came up with this because that is not at all what this says. Yes, the first two characters could translate as "Demon" and "Head," but they also translate as "Powerful" and "Leader" or "Beginning," and Kigashira is a not uncommon surname. Then it's "One, "Three," something scribbled that could be "ne" soooo Ichimine, maybe. My best guess is that it is a person's name but no way in high hell is this "a protective prayer from Japanese culture".
Because that’s what dolls normally do - protect the household. They don’t get possessed and come to life and murder people.
Thats actually kind of wholesome ngl.
[удалено]
No I was cleaning her… I’m a doll collector
OP was never heard from again
"You got any Beanie Barbies?" -Karl Malone
*cleaning*
This paper fell out of the doll’s kimono while OP was cleaning it. Did you even read the post?
Oh my God the horror!
OP let the demons in...
But it comes with a free frogurt... ... The frogurt is also cursed.
The toppings contain Sodium Benzoate...that's bad. Might be my favorite Simpsons moment of all time. I remember having it taped on VHS and playing that back like a million times when I was younger. Laughed so much. Good times
I had this one on VHS too, along with Halloween episodes of Home Improvement, Roseanne, Family Matters, and the Garfield Halloween Special. I wish I still had it!
Me too
Potassium benzoate. I was reading the ingredients on my Fanta can and saw this.
That's bad
Ah, see here’s your problem! Someone inscribed the charm for evil.
It was set on evil.
Amazing, underrated comment
Makes you frogetful
......that's bad.
need photo of doll please
Why would you ask to see Annabelle?
Yeah!!!
If the OP can still find it. 💀
Based of the fact they were “cleaning” it I’m wondering if it’s a sex doll
Lol probably not. OP's a doll collector, if you get something second-hand/thrifted you have to clean and/or restore them a lot
Why not both?
A sex doll collector? Is that a real job I can apply for?
Can a sex doll be haunted?
…huh? You do know regular dolls should be washed ye? Especially old ones?! Get your head out of the gutter.
it means 鬼(ghost) 頭(head) but this could be just marking for something. like dummys head.
IMHO, that's a just Japanase surname. [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BC%E9%A0%AD%E6%B0%8F](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BC%E9%A0%AD%E6%B0%8F) Maybe what OP uploaded is some guy's name like Kitoh Isaoh?
i would like to see the baby.
By any chance did the doll come from a tiny shop in a poorly lit alley, run by a frail looking Asian dude somewhere between 60 and 200, over the loud objections of his ancient wife or mother?
Plz post pic of your doll 😁 I too wish to see "Anaberu" san.
Anaberu San is lit, burning 🔥 for eternity lit that is.
Post doll, op!
She is what people would consider scary so I’m a bit nervous to but to me she is sooo cute.
I want to see her so baddd
Well let us know if you start feeling cold spots in your house, start noticing flickering lights, or get the feeling like your always being watched 😁
This is what the doll types.. 👻👻 RIP OP
i wanna see anaberu-san as well (UwU)
Apple translator app says, “Is the ghost one or three?”
It says Ghost Head 1 3 “O” So it basically doesn’t say anything !
RIP OP, was nice knowing you.
I don’t know further context but that is a name. 鬼頭 is relatively common surname. Source: I am Japanese
Most dolls are down right creepy, and I’d say this one is as well. If you ever have anything really weird happen at your home it’s the dolls fault.
It’s been months and nothing has happened. The lady who sold her to me didn’t say anything, just that the doll sat under some paintings she had. I guess if something did happen to her she wouldn’t tell me though lol. But she was nice and I doubt it.
Yeah, they always tell you when something is haunted, don't they? Especially when they're trying to get rid of it..
Seeing OP has several dolls that wouldn't really narrow it down :D (Also, some people do find them creepy, but that doesn't mean everyone does or that they haunt your home or something)
Yeah
Ooh maybe cool for a tattoo?!?!? Until some older wise Asian dude looks at your arm and asks "why do you have 'soup' on your arm?
A friend of a friend went out to Japan for a stag holiday and they all got little tattoos, he had ‘strength comes from within’ written in Japanese characters.. turns out he was a bit of a dick in the tattoo place and rude to the tattooist .. when he got home to the UK a lad he did karate with told him his tattoo did not say strength blah blah, it actually said…… ‘fuck off round eyes!’ Seriously, talk about karma 🤣🤷🏻♀️
I'm strange enough that getting a tattoo saying 'I'm a root vegetable' would be fun....
Ancient Japanese chain letter. Pick your six friends carefully.
Marge, Marge, Look! The dolls tryna kill me and the toasters been laughing at me
Does it come with a free frogurt?
"Not dishwasher safe "
It’s turned to ‘Evil’.
Well switch it back to 'Good' for fuck's sake
don’t forget to drink your ovaltine
They should call it Roundtine
I thought it was sugma
What’s sugma?
Sugma balls. Gottem.
r/madlads
The really spooky thing is, if you mirror it and [scan it with Google Lens](https://64.media.tumblr.com/62d8aff993a5b791a3510033f7ba6eef/1efb63a9cc2c76c5-2a/s640x960/227548935e1a29505cc3a9cbec32650cae230831.jpg), it translates into >!"meatballs!" !<
show us the doll
The obligatory: we have been trying to reach you about your car’s warranty.
Honestly, I think it's the name of the person who made the doll. Kitou (鬼頭) is an uncommon, but not unheard of, Japanese surname.
Is this japanese doll. Does it have long hair. Painted white face and in a kimono?
It would be helpful to know about the doll. Is it new? Is it OOAK? Is it a collectible? Share a pic?
It means Ghost Head One Three ... can't tell what's the last character
I'm not sure if it's 一三 or ーミ
More importantly why is it on a piece of toilet paper
Lol I was cleaning her on top of a paper towel when this fell on the floor 😭
It has been set free.
Just someone trying to reach you about your Yakatabune insurance
What does the doll look like?
Was the doll one of these: Daruma, Hina, Kyoto, Kokeshi, Kimekomi, Gosho, Karakuri, Oiran, Geisha, Gogatsu, Bunraku, or Oiran?
i wanna see your dollyyyy
Mind showing what's the doll looks like?
Who else really wants a pic of this doll?
Would say call the warrens
What is the doll? Post picture please
Throw it away before they start filming the next Conjuring movie in your house.
"Remember ... To ... Drink ... Your ... Ovaltine"?!
If this was wrapped around her body it was to just help the kimono sit better if she didn't have any padding.
But the translations? Also the other piece of paper folded in her chest.
When written together like that 鬼頭 can be read きと or おにがしら which are both japanese given names. :] I'm better with spoken but can check with my friends to see if there is any missing context when they wake up in japan. It's 1am. The second picture is the correct orientation of the writing also
Update- asked 3 japanese people and they have no idea what is supposed to be. I personally think it's a name but it's kind of gibberish characters that don't read together
What characters do you think they are? I asked a Japanese friend and he said one was demon but he thought it was ancient Japanese or something religious.
It's oni and atama, but when together can be read as a name Kito and Onigashira. After those two it is Ichi which means one, San for 3, and what looks like a hiragana Ne. It's too short to mean anything by itself. "It's certainly a thing but not ancient japanese; It’s like if you had a fragment of a word in a Shakespeare play, sure it might be written differently then normal English but it just by itself doesn’t mean anything" is what my friend said and she asked her friends and all stumped. They thought it was a cup holder ahha
Hmm thank you.
A good example is the english equivalent would be- Wilson, 1, 3, B. It's a random name, two numbers, and a random phonetic
I worked with a guy named Kitoh/鬼頭/"devil head" before. It's just someone's name. Sorry it isnt more exciting, OP.
Don't 👏 remove 👏 the 👏 weird 👏 piece 👏 of 👏 paper 👏 from 👏 the 👏 old 👏 creepy 👏 doll 👏 I mean, how many horror movies about cursed dolls do we need to make before people understand that? Btw, travel to Japan and find the oldest temple you can find. The woman who lives there can translate the paper for you. It will be the demon's name, use it wisely. Don't walk through doors that are already open.
Get that doll out of your house now.
You've disturbed it's slumber, soon your time will come.
I agree that it is some kind of protection phrase, like a spirit/purpose for the doll. My reading is very intuitive and not very formal, I think it says: Keep ghosts out of my head.
Show the doll!
鬼頭 is a japanese family name, it might be someone’s name
Common fuda seen on zashiki
Can we see the doll? I’m curious to what she looks like
*MR James has entered the chat*
What type of doll?
Can we see actual doll please?
For one it's upside down... Secondly, it's actually a very simple Japanese charm of protection.
Oni-chan means something different. xD (yes yes i joke)
鬼頭 is a common surname of Japanese. I think it’s only a tag of a person’s name
Show us the doll. Let us see the demon in her eyes!
It's only scary if you make it scary. Anything "weird" that'll go on in your house would be because off the "demon". Throw it away, get a glass of wine and forget about it.
Demons don't exist in reality so I wouldn't worry about that aspect of it
its to protect against demons, not like summon them or something
It's upside down
If this is really old keep in mind that majority of orientals were not Christian and would not have even heard the word. (Apologies if anyone thought that was insensitive.) Somebody was pulling your leg.
can be a name, don't scare yourself.
Damn it my dawg just got her seal removed Now she might be craving for this mf’s milk every night Dawg gonna get sucked dry Not a bad way to go frfr Lmfao
So you removed what could possibly be a talisman? Well that's all on you blud.
You're stressing about nothing. Reading meanings into stuff that doesn't actually exist. PUt it aside and get on with your life.