Urban Legend of Gozu

Posted on by Thomas Norman

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Cow Head, or Gozu in Japanese, is an urban legend that cryptically claims the existence of a tale able to shatter one’s sanity from reading mere fragments – the whole tale not intact as supposedly that dangerous. The entire idea is strongly reminiscent of Robert W. Chambers’ ‘The King in Yellow‘ – both concerning reading material of such wicked influence upon processing (or even involvement). Gozu was reportedly discovered in the 17th century by an unknown author, but other accounts claim the 20th-century sci-fi author, Sakyo Komatsu, concocted the tale as a secretive deed.

The ambiguous urban legend has spurred films to incorporate the motifs and developed from here into a more crystalized idea of a man with a cow head to represent it via the title (as one of the few concrete details to inspire). The first film to reference the urban legend was Takashi Miike’s Gozu (2003), but an upcoming film from Takashi Shimizu will also highlight the tale as the central focus – a conclusion to his ‘Village of Terror’ trilogy in which each film focuses an urban legend! Let’s pray these do not become valid interpretations of the Gozu tale and channel similar influences as the original.

Anybody reading the book’s content, or even excerpts, is said to foam at the mouth and fall unconscious – the severity depends on how much they endure. In other instances, the reader succumbs to terror for days, shambling and shivering incoherently until finally dying overnight. Authorities understandably attempted to suppress all records of the tale and purged any history relating to it – it was no different to a virus in terms of risking public health. The mystery of the author, content, and purpose persist – no details have ever materialised for any higher explanation.

Interestingly, a yokai exists – kudan – with the body of a bovine and the head of a human – a reversal of how the physical manifestation of this tale has been cultivated. More closely related, however, a ‘kudan’ was rumoured during the World War 2 era which had a bovine face and wore a kimono – much closer to the current idea and referred to as ‘ushi-onna’ (cow woman). The symbolism of kudan is that of a messenger and the ‘ushi-onna’ of World War 2 carried a prophecy of foreboding doom: Imperial Japan would lose World War 2 for national destruction. Maybe the tale itself, and the figurehead of it, are a gloomy prophecy of terrible events, provoking fatalistic terror of future events?

A fun anecdote claims a schoolteacher took his class on a school trip and to entertain his kids during their trip, he usually recited ‘kaidan’ as his playful notion to spook the children. On a bus for the trip, he suggested sharing ‘Cow Head’ to the kids’ dismay – they begged him to not, all aware of the consequences of its reputation. He persisted merrily, however, and did not conceive the full effects. The teacher subsequently collapsed unconscious and awoke later to the bus in a ditch, all his students unconscious.

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