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Okiku2

This is the actual doll.

The Okiku Doll (お菊人形) is named after it's owner and originates from Hokkaido, Japan, which can be found inside Mannenji Temple in Iwamizawa. When the doll first appeared, it had black cropped hair. People said that the hair on the doll grows (That's right! It grows!). According to some people, the hair is trimmed so that it won't be so long. The Okiku Doll's hair is said to be as long as 25 centimeters (10"). Unlike most tales of haunted dolls, this one possesses no violent history.

--LEGEND.[]

According to the legend, the story of the Okiku Ningyo, ningyo meaning a human shaped doll, began in 1918. A young man named Eikichi Suzuki was visiting Sapporo, Japan and saw a doll which he immediately knew would be the perfect gift for his 2-year-old sister Okiku. The doll was just under 16 inches tall and dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono with shoulder length hair. When Eikichi returned home he presented the doll to his sister and it quickly became her constant companion. If the doll was not in Okiku’s possession it was always nearby and was never out of her sight. The little girl loved the doll so much she named it after herself, Okiku. In 1919 tragedy struck the Suzuki family when Okiku became ill and passed away from a high fever at the age of 3. The original plan was for the doll to be buried with Okiku, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the doll was placed on a small altar in the Suzuki home for remembrance. The family soon began to think that there was an extraordinary connection between their deceased Okiku and the Okiku Ningyo. At one point they noticed something very unusual – the doll, which had an ‘okappa’ hair style (cropped at around jawline length and with a small fringe over the forehead), now had noticeably longer hair. As time passed the shoulder length hair on the doll began to grow, eventually reaching 10 inches in length. The Suzuki family believed that the spirit of Okiku was in the doll.

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