Ryomen Sukuna (リョウメンスクナ): The Name Written on the Long Wooden Box Found in a Temple

First, I should make one thing clear.

The Ryomen Sukuna discussed here is not a confirmed incident record. In Japanese, it is written as 「リョウメンスクナ」, and in kanji as 「両面宿儺」. It is an internet horror story that spread from a post made on September 21, 2005, in a well-known horror thread on the Japanese anonymous message board 2ch.

There was once a 2ch thread along the lines of “Let’s collect scary stories that are no joke, the kind that could scare you to death.” Many Japanese internet horror stories spread through that thread, and Ryomen Sukuna belongs to that line.

In Korea, the name “Ryomen Sukuna” may be more familiar because of 『Jujutsu Kaisen』. But what I am dealing with here is not the character from the manga. This is a story long circulated in Japanese internet horror circles, about a wooden box discovered at the demolition site of a temple.

There is one slightly complicated point.

The name Ryomen Sukuna itself was not newly invented by an internet horror story. It is an old name that also appears in the ancient Japanese historical text 『Nihon Shoki』. In Hida, the northern part of present-day Gifu Prefecture, there are still traditions that regard Ryomen Sukuna as a local guardian f