Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #22 January 2016 | Page 39

in the woods. That’s where the earliest infamy of
Aokigahara’s stories began, in the older times where
superstition was the law of the land (in some rural
parts of Japan it still is by some of the older residents)
it’s believed that when someone wonders into the
forest and never come back that they’ve been ‘spirited
away’. No I’m not talking about the Miyazaki’s 2001
animated masterpiece where being ‘spirited away’ can
be a magical adventure into the unknown, I’m talking
‘spiriting away’ the Grudge style, you’re taken away
and most likely killed. In reality it’s almost certainly
the poor soul lost in the woods died from exposure.

The forest is said to be the stomping grounds
of demons from Japanese folklore and mythology,
most likely Oni (Japanese ogres). Because of its past
it’s believed that Aokigahara is full of yūrei, what
we in western cultures would simply call a ghost but
a yūrei is a specific type of ghost, a vengeful ghost.
How do you make a yūrei? Well in Shinto beliefs (like
all beliefs) a person has a soul, or in Shinto it’s called
a Reikon. A Reikon leaves the body at the moment of
death and goes to purgatory till the proper funeral and
post-funeral rights are performed, and the soul moves
on. If these rights aren’t performed properly the soul
wanders aimlessly and eventually becomes vengeful,
but the quickest way to make a yūrei is at the moment
of a sudden and brutal death (murder or suicide), or if
at the moment of death they have strong desires such
as love, hatred, sorrow or vengeance, the soul can
transform into a yūrei and leaved purgatory and haunt
a location (mainly where they died). Now this is
where Aokigahara’s most infamous nickname comes
in, The Suicide Forest. Even though Aokigahara is a
popular place for hiking tourists and photographers
from a