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Kisaragi Station

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The Enshū Railway Line, the setting for the urban legend of Kisaragi Station.[1]

Kisaragi Station (Japanese: きさらぎ駅, Hepburn: Kisaragi-eki) is a Japanese urban legend about a fictitious railway station.[1][2][3] The station first came into the news in 2004, when the story was posted on the internet forum 2channel.[4]

Plot

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A woman, who later revealed her name was "Hasumi" made a post inside a train car with other passengers asleep. It was her routine commute to work, but the train was unusually making no stops for a long time. The woman was unable to communicate with the conductor and the driver, and with no answers to the strange nature of the train, she makes a post on the internet forum asking for what to do. After communicating with the users responding to the post, she posted that the train made a stop after an hour of riding the train from Shin-Hamamatsu Station. The station's sign read "Kisaragi Station", a vacant station which seems to be unstaffed.

After the unusual activity inside the train, Hasumi exited the train and stayed in the station, discussing what to do next. The users on the forum warned Hasumi that there is no such station on the internet and she should exit the area immediately. She wandered around the outside of station building, desperately trying to catch a taxi for a way home, with no success. However, she found a telephone booth and called her parents to pick her up, but her parents weren't able to find the location of Hasumi, as Kisaragi Station does not exist on the map.

The situation around the area became more creepy as time went by. Bells were ringing from the station, and were making slowly intensifying festival-like drumbeat. Creeped out, Hasumi decided to walk on the railway tracks back to home, but was interrupted by a single-legged man who yelled "Hey! Don't walk on the track! It's dangerous!", who immediately vanished without a trace. With her fear being stronger due to the event, she fled to a tunnel recklessly, injuring herself.

After reaching the end of the tunnel, a friendly man welcomed her and offered a ride back. Despite the unusual situation of a man being in this place, in the middle of a night, she took the offer. While the man was chatty at first, he slowly became silent, and even started muttering gibberish. Terrified, she made her final post, saying "My battery’s almost run out. Things are getting strange, so I think I’m going to make a run for it. He’s been talking to himself about bizarre things for a while now. To prepare for just the right time, I’m going to make this my last post for now". After this post, Hasumi completely disappeared.

Internet response

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The Saginomiya Station

Due to the post saying that the author was riding a train from Private railway in Shizuoka Prefecture, Shin-Hamamatsu Station the station was suspected to be in an otherworldly position connected by the Enshū Railway Line.[5] However, people have also claimed to have seen the station in Fukuoka Prefecture.[3] Many people have pointed out that Saginomiya Station might be the model for the Kisaragi Station.[6]

Later, many posts about escaping the station, along with adjacent stations, "Yami Station" and "Katasu Station" were made, with image of a station said to be the station building of Kisaragi Station.[7][8] However, these photos were later discovered to be images of Misedani Station and Nishi-Aioi Station.[9] Most stories claimed the distortion of time, and malfunctioning GPS in the area.[3] An anonymous user on Google Maps created a spot called "Kisaragi Station" on a pond in the area of University of Tsukuba, allowing people to look for routes to the spot.[10]

At first, the stories of Kisaragi Station led to fears that nobody will be able to return to their homes if they enter it because the original poster, "Hasumi" disappeared after the posts.[2] However, some people that claimed to have escaped the area, stated that they did a certain thing, such as calling for help by setting up a fireplace to escape.[2] Additionally, from a post made in 2018,[11] a person claimed to have escaped the station thanks to the friendly conductor and local residents, and the focus of the urban legend's emphasis is placed on the romance of traveling in another world, rather than the fear it had initially.[2] The Kanji name for Kisaragi Station was not stated in the original post, so Hiragana is used instead for the writing of the station name. In Chinese, the station is often written as "如月車站", and some posts in Japanese also use the name "如月駅".[12] Some other names, such as "鬼駅",[13] are also seen in several posts,[2][3][14] but are not widely recognized.

Impacts of the urban legend

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After the topic went viral on Twitter, the urban legend became widely known with internet users, and many phone calls and mails have been sent to Enshū Railways.[1] In 2022, Kisaragi Station, a movie about this legend was released, becoming popular especially in areas close to Hamamatsu.[15][16][17] The Enshū Railways also briefly changed the name of Saginomiya Station to Kisaragi Station following the release.[18] On the same year, Enshū Railways sold a replica of train tickets with Kisaragi Station as a destination, selling out after an hour.[19]

Many people have visited Saginomiya Station as it is believed to be the motif of the urban legend.[1][20] Enshū Railways have advertised the station as the birthplace of the urban legend,[6] holding events related to it at the station. The area around the station in 2019 has large traffic and settlements surrounding it, and doesn't match with the theme of the legend.[21] However, according to an Enshū Railways worker, there was no convenience store or bicycle parking in 2004,[21] when the urban legend was posted, and it was darker than it is nowadays.[20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d 吉田史弥 (Yoshida Fumiya) (9 January 2018). 遠鉄「きさらぎ駅」？ 消えた「はすみ」さん、都市伝説１０年超 [Enshū's "Kisaragi Station"? The disappearance of "Hasumi" and an urban legend over 10 years old]. Shizuoka Shimbun (in Japanese). p. 3. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e 吉田悠軌 (Yoshida Yuuki) (2 November 2018). 禁足地巡礼 [Pilgrimage to a forbidden place]. Fusosha Shinsho (in Japanese). Tokyo: Fusosha. pp. 183–202. ISBN 978-4-594-08083-9.
  3. ^ a b c d 朝里樹 (Itsuki Asari) (17 January 2018). 日本現代怪異事典 [Encyclopedia of Modern Japanese Legends] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kasama Shoin. pp. 42, 116–117, 241, 386. ISBN 978-4-305-70859-5.
  4. ^ 身のまわりで変なことが起こったら実況するスレ26 [Post About Strange Occurrences Around You: Thread 26]. Kakolog (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  5. ^ "ネットで騒然､恐怖｢きさらぎ駅｣はどこにある?". 東洋経済オンライン (in Japanese). 28 July 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b "きさらぎ駅 | 遠鉄電車（赤電）公式サイト - 浜松市を南北に走る電車｜遠州鉄道株式会社". きさらぎ駅 | 遠鉄電車（赤電）公式サイト - 浜松市を南北に走る電車｜遠州鉄道株式会社 (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  7. ^ kozuka.senosuke (15 January 2021). "【都市伝説】きさらぎ駅やみ駅かたす駅などの異界駅｜新解釈をしてみました". 【ワンピース考察】甲塚誓ノ介のいい芝居してますね！ (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  8. ^ "【オカルト】きさらぎ駅の隣「かたす駅」から生還したのんたさんの話【異世界】". RENOTE [リノート] (in Japanese). 2 August 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  9. ^ Jタウンネット編集部 (8 February 2016). "「きさらぎ駅」の写真がついに投稿される！→鉄道ファン「それ○○駅」｜Jタウンネット". Jタウンネット (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  10. ^ "These days, reality can be more frightening than made-up stories". Japan Today. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  11. ^ "電車に乗ってたら急に人いなくなった". mao.5ch.net. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  12. ^ "昨日異世界行ったっぽい". Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  13. ^ "鬼駅ってどこお？". toro.2ch.sc. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  14. ^ "【作家誌】靈異天后笭菁：我非文青也非文學大家，只是愛說故事". Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  15. ^ "映画「きさらぎ駅」公式サイト". kisaragimovie.com. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  16. ^ Nagae, Jirô (3 June 2022), Kisaragi Station (Drama, Horror), Yuri Tsunematsu, Miyu Honda, Rui Kihara, Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, retrieved 16 February 2024
  17. ^ "「きさらぎ駅」に若者どっと シネマイーラ来館者数押し上げ：中日新聞しずおかWeb". 中日新聞Web (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  18. ^ "【浜松】２ちゃん都市伝説「きさらぎ駅」は浜松の「さぎの宮駅」！？実際に行ってみた（たまちゃん） - エキスパート". Yahoo!ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  19. ^ 鉄道チャンネル. "都市伝説で知られる「きさらぎ駅」限定切符、遠州鉄道が8日発売 大きな反響に「追加のお知らせ」も | 鉄道ニュース". 鉄道チャンネル (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  20. ^ a b "グーグル検索の県１位 架空の「きさらぎ駅」：中日新聞しずおかWeb". 中日新聞Web (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  21. ^ a b 高島昌俊 (23 November 2019). "ネットで10年以上話題の「きさらぎ駅」の謎を検証…実在するのか？". 日刊SPA! (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 February 2024.
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