Japanese Horror Stories
Aka Manto's

The Red Cloak ( ⁇ Aka manto) is a Japanese urban legend about ghosts wandering around public toilets and schools, constantly offering red and blue papers to their victims. In another version it is stated that he would ask his victims about red or blue robes. It is often said that when he was alive he was a handsome man and always followed by his admirers, so he used a mask to cover his face.

Aka Manto( ⁇ ), in English translation is called Red Cape which if we translate to Indonesian, becomes Red Cloak, it is one of the many supernatural urban legends originating from the country of Sakura, Japan. It is said that there are evil spirits that haunt the toilets at school. Told in one version, if someone is using the school toilet (especially if the toilet room is located at the end), a voice appears out of nowhere asking, “want red or blue tissue?” If you choose a red tissue, then you will be chopped, cut or anything that causes the clothes you wear red like Aka Manto. If you choose blue tissue, then you will be strangled until your skin turns blue as you request. If you choose another color other than those two, you will be drawn to hell. The only option not to die or fall into hell is to not choose any color tissue. 

Here Is One of Aka Manto's Stories

At a school in Tokyo, Japan, it is rumored that there is a ghost, named Aka Manto, who haunts the female toilet. Every child in the school knew Aka Manto, so they always avoided the old toilet near the gym. One day, a young girl desperately needs to use the toilet. Because the closest toilet was the old one, he used the toilet and saw that no one was wearing it. Without hesitation, he chose the fourth toilet door and finished his business because of the place, he saw the cleanest. When the girl wanted to pick up the tissue, she did not find any tissue hanging in place. Then he heard the voice of Aka Manto from outside, behind the door where he was.

“You want red tissue or blue tissue?” Her speech.

“Red tissue.” Reply to the girl. Aka Manto then broke down the toilet door and stabbed the girl. He did not stop until every inch of the girl's shirt turned red.

A few months later, there was another young girl who was also in desperate need to use the toilet. When he finds out about an unsolved murder case housed in a toilet near a gym building, he is too desperate to find another toilet (possibly a long distance away or full). When he finished his affairs in the same fourth toilet as the previous girl, he found no tissue hanging in place. 

“You want red tissue or blue tissue?” Said Aka Manto, from behind the outside door where the girl was housed.

The young girl recalled the fate of the previous girl who answered the red tissue, so she replied, “tisu blue.”Police later found him dead in the toilet in the afternoon. His face was blue from being strangled to death.

A few years passed, and again, there was a third girl using the gymnasium toilet. He knew the stories of the murdered girls, this girl brought a tissue for her own use. When he opened his bag, he found that the tissue he was carrying disappeared. 

Desperate for thinking that she would die like the girls before, then she took the third choice. “Yellow wipes.” He was dragged to hell by his choice. 

It is said that Aka Manto still haunts the toilets of the four sports halls to date. Teachers forbid students to approach the toilet because they are afraid of what is inside. The toilet can still be used, but if you wear it, be prepared to answer “tisu red or blue tissue?”

The Original Story of Aka Manto



This version of the story was first created in the 1930s, although other versions have been around longer than this version. More than 70 years ago, her appearance changed from wearing a short sleeveless kimono jacket to a robe or long red coat due to changes in the Japanese lexicon over the past few years (Aka Manto).

Many of these stories influenced various versions of Aka Manto. One of them is the story of Kainade, a monster that occupies another world toilet. Kainade hid in old residential toilets in Kyoto and only appeared on February 3, during the Setsubun festival in Japan (Kainade). When a person squats near a traditional Japanese toilet, two hands come out and touch you. The only way to stop is to squat and ask “white or red paper?” Then the hand will stop and leave you alone.

Another version of Aka Manto, he's a kidnapper and a murderer. It is said that a man in a red coat visited a small shop at midnight (The Red Cloak). She explained that she was a maid from the main house and her employer was seriously ill. He convinced his father to help him, then his mother a moment later. Then, she came for the third time to bring her children, but the neighbors insisted that the children were sleeping, so she could not take them. The red-coated man reluctantly left. Later, the couple, the father and mother were found dead and the red-coated man was never found again. 

This story is based on a real story about the murder of “aoi ghetto” or also called the killer blue coat. In Fukui, Japan in 1906, three family members were taken in by a man whose head was covered in a blue coat. It is believed that they were all brutally murdered. Due to the absence of English-language documents released, it is not known how the story of this crime next.