Hachishakusama or the “Eight-Feet Tall Woman”: a Japanese urban legend in modern horror games

The Eight Feet Tall Woman (from now simply Tall Woman) is a recent urban legend that came out from the deep secrets of the Web. In August 2008, a post in Japan by an anonymous user described his encounter in 1998 with the Tall Woman while he was at his grandparents’ place. The creature is generally described as an incredibly tall and thin woman, with unnaturally long limbs and pale skin. She is usually dressed in funerary white clothes, including a hat and a cute dress with a shirt, but in other sightings, she was dressed in a kimono. Another peculiar characteristic is her voice, which usually sounds like a sort of distorted laugh saying:
“Po…Po…Po.”

In every story, the Tall Woman is a dangerous and mischievous being. After achieving the status of urban legend, the tale got more twisted and elaborated. Some versions claim that she preys on children, kidnapping them to then disappear. In less common stories, the Tall Woman is associated with more common Japanese curses, so after meeting her, the victim has 7 days to leave the country or die. Interestingly, even if the Tall Woman is a recent urban legend, it could be based on an existing Yokai. There is in fact a classic folkloric creature that is also a tall woman, with incredibly long legs. The Takaonna is a Yokai that uses her unnatural height to spy inside the brothel windows, to then laugh or criticize what is happening inside.

In the gaming scene, the Tall Woman is very well represented, especially in Japanese and Cantonese games. Surprisingly, the Tall Woman makes an appearance in the horror franchise Fatal Frame, specifically in the 5th chapter, Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water, released for Wii U and recently for modern consoles. The Tall Woman is a menacing and mysterious enemy inside the game. First, because she completely lacks any backstory. While in the game, the player can use Glancing to learn the tragic backstory of each ghost, but this is not true for the Tall Woman. Second, the Tall Woman attacks without any plan or plot, just a terrible and unknown menace. Before the first encounter, the player could see the Tall Woman watching from a window, or staring from the woods, taller than many trees. When the battle starts, the Tall Woman is a terrifying fight. She will come walking from the background, colossal and yet elegant, with a disturbing grin on her face. Her attacks are slow, mainly based on partially crawling to stretch the long arms trying to grab the player, but able to inflict an insane amount of damage. The fascinating element is that the Tall Woman is basically an urban legend even inside Fatal Frame, mysterious, lacking a connection with the main plot, and yet being one of the most terrifying ghosts of the entire franchise.

If an image is not enough, and you want to have a look at the actual fight against the Tall Woman in Fatal Frame, you can check the following video:

There is also another more recent example of the Tall Woman inside a Japanese horror game and, even if this time the reference is more feeble, it is part of a historical horror franchise. Resident Evil 8 used the Tall Woman for its most famous villain, Lady Dimitrescu, the gigantic vampire lady that went viral on the Web. The Woman not only is almost 9 feet tall but she is also dressed very similarly to the creature of the urban legends, with a white dress and a big hat. This is not a simple speculation, because the commentaries inside in-game concepts confirm that Lady Dimitrescu is based on the famous Yokai. If you are interested in Lady Dimitritescu, or other surprising connections between Resident Evil Village and folklore, check my other article: Resident Evil Village and the influences from folklore and literature: from Japanese Yokai to haunting pictures of 19th Century.

The Tall Woman is also present in the secret chapter of the Cantonese horror game Sense A Cyberpunk Horror Story. The game is a 2D adventure inside an abandoned building, combining a sci-fi setting with Chinese traditions, ghosts, and exorcisms (and it is also a very good example of a game inspired by Clock Tower, read more here: Hide and seek with immortal stalkers: the best Indie Games similar to Clock Tower [Updated Oct 2023]). While the main game combines sci-fi elements with ancient Chinese traditions and folklore, the bonus chapter moves the story to Japan. Exactly here, more precisely inside a gorgeous haunted forest, the game will show the Tall Woman as the main enemy in the area. She is towering and threatening, dressed in white, with long limbs and twisted proportions, perfectly fitting the urban legend representation. The gigantic woman is a deadly enemy able to kill the main character instantaneously if caught in her deadly grab. The game will also show a unique panel of the main character’s death under the deadly hands of the Tall Woman. Only time will tell if this bonus chapter is just a taste of a future sequel set in Japan, where the Tall Lady will maybe have even more space.