Japanese Horror Stories
Noperabou

Nopperabou (in Japanese: ⁇ or ⁇ ) is a phantom or yokai that is as physical as a faceless human in Japanese mythology.[1][2] The main hobby of nopperabou ghosts is to scare people in lonely places, and they usually do so in groups.[3][4]

Nopperabou looks like a human being mostly in physical terms, and his nature likes to blend in with the surrounding community.[1] However, the horror can be felt when one tries to come face to face with one of these yokai, for he has absolutely no face; his face is just a flat circle of skin with no eyes, mouth, nose, or eyes, eyebrows, or whatever.[1]

Nopperabou are usually easy to find in quiet and dark places especially at night where they feel safe from humans.[1] Usually the main purpose of them wandering in the middle of the night is to scare people, namely by disguising themselves as men or women who cry or close their faces, then after that surprised them with his flat face.

Painting of the physical form of nopperabou, a ghost in Japanese mythology.

Or sometimes, they first have a face, then a few minutes later, on various occasions, they open their hands to their faces and form a flat face.[3] Furthermore, these yokai usually work in groups and have strong teamwork to scare one person.[4] Nopperabou is a form of change that the yokai of other shape-shifting animals—kitsune, tanuki, and the most popular mujina.[4] In fact, there are often stories that say that flat-faced creatures are called mujina.[4]

legend

One day a merchant came home on foot through a dark valley, and on his way he met a woman crying bitterly.[2] Being with the woman, he tried to ease her cries, but unexpectedly, the woman he helped turned out to have no face at all.[2] Terrified, the man ran and locked the door of his house and shouted to his wife about the creature he had met in the street.[2] But his wife answered with a flat face.[3] Another story says, the man did not return home, but he ran to a nearby pay phone unaware that he himself had turned into one of the nopperabou.[3]

Popularities

Nopperabou is found in Japanese anime, manga, films, and video games.[5][6] One of them is in the Pom Poko anime produced by Studio Ghibli where there is a policeman who ran around scared because he met a nopperabou in the middle of the road.[5] In addition, in the anime Axis Powers Hetalia nopperabou appears as a faceless alien invading the earth.[7] And in the game Adventure Quest Worlds nopperabou is described as the enemy of obstacles that inhabit Hachiko Tower in the yokai revolution mission.[6]

Nopperabou or Noppera-bo, know the ghost of slenderman tau Nopperabou. It is a ghost that exists in Japan, in contrast to the slenderman that only exists in the forest or bush (maumemperkosa). It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Mujina, a word in the language for a dog raccoon. Although the mujina may assume other forms, the common noppera-bo is human. This creature failed to change form to scare the humans.

Noppera-bo is known as a dangerous creature, but is usually declared harmless. They appear at first as ordinary humans, sometimes announcing others who are already familiar with us before they present themselves with an empty face with smooth facial skin. 

A. Nopperabo and fish pond?

B. Mujina from Akasaka Street

The most famous story memory of Noppera-bo comes from the book Lafcadio Hearn Kwaidan

Strange Things Story and Study. The story of a man who travels along the path of Akasaka to Edo. Then he saw a young woman in a quiet location near Kunizaka hill, crying and very sad. After trying to console the woman and offer her help, he turned to face it, instead of the main the young man was very defiant as the woman was facing him with a faceless ghost blank face. Frightened, the man continued on his way, until he found a buckwheat seller. Then the vendor or owner of the buckwheat shop releases the youth to relax first. But the fate of the young man was surprising because the owner of the tavern was a Noppera-bo himself. hihihi 

There is another story about Noppera-bo a young woman who is saved from a villain with a samurai on a horse whose face disappears, this is the story of the Japanese nobility.