Japanese Urban Legends

Kagome, Kagome

Kagome, Kagome is a Japanese children's game that can be interpreted. Since Kagome can be translated as "circle",  the game can also be called "Circle You, Circle You."

This is less of an urban legend itself, and more of a bunch of miniature theories and legends behind this game. Personally, it took me a while to sort this all out because of how much there is behind this game on the internet. I apologize if it gets too confusing, but hopefully you can understand the gist of what I'm about to write.

Now, the unique aspect of this game is that there have been many rumors of the purpose behind it. Because of the cryptic lyrics and rules, nobody can be truly sure of what the lyrics mean, or what the game is about.

In the game, one player is chosen as the oni, which is similar to "it" (it can also stand for a demonic creature, but "it" is the more popular meaning for this). The player is blindfolded and sits or stands on the floor. The other children join hands and walk in circles around the oni, and sing the song that goes with the game. Once the song ends, the children stop walking in a circle and stand where they are. The oni then has to try and name the person standing behind them. If they are correct, the person behind them will exchange places with them and continue the game. If not, then they stay in the middle and the players go around once again.

Here are the lyrics of the game in Romanji along with an English translation:

Kagome kagome                              (Circle you, circle you,)

Kago-no naka-no tori-wa             (The bird inside the basket/cage,)

Itsu itsu deyaru                                (When, oh when will it come out,)

Yoake-no ban-ni                             (In the night of dawn,)

Tsuru-to kame-ga subetta         (The crane and the turtle slipped,)

  Ushiro-no shomen da-a-re?   (Who is behind you now?)

Now, people have a ton of theories on what these lyrics mean. Of course, they might mean little to nothing, but in cases like "Ring Around the Rosie", children songs have the history of holding darker meanings behind them. Some think that the lyrics can link up with a woman that was forced into prostitution, and has slept with so many men that she can't remember them. There have also been suspicions that it may be about a pregnant woman who was pushed down a flight of stairs, and wonders who has caused her to have a miscarriage.

Either way, the unknown meaning behind this game has led to creepy interpretations and stories behind it all.

There is a morbid story that people have made based off of this game. It is about a Japanese orphanage that scientists performed experiments on. These scientists wanted to see how immortality worked, and if it was possible to surgically make people live forever by altering their brains. With this in mind, they performed surgeries including lobotomies and amputations on the orphans there. Eventually, they were successful in making made the children immortal- but at a cost. The children now had dark tendencies and were out of blood, playing their favorite game with the scientists that made them this way. In the children's twisted version of Kagome, Kagome, if you guess who is behind you incorrectly, you die.

 If you're a fan of Vocaloid music, then you may know a dark-themed song by Megurine Luka and Miku Hatsune that has inspired this story. It is called "Kagome, Kagome" and has a multitude of hints towards horrific experiments. Some of the lyrics include "Orphanage deep in the forest greens, so no one would find the dark machines. Made from a little child's brain, immortality built of children's pain." If you haven't seen it, I'll leave it at the bottom of this legend so you can check it out if you want to.

Overall, this music video blossomed an interesting story behind the game. There's not any true proof of this theory being real, and it's more like a little story to spark creativity in the horror genre.

There has also been a Creepypasta based off of this story that goes into detail about what happened, along with the accounts of the experiments. It throws in Nazi soldiers that picked the isolated orphanage in Japan to perform tests so that nobody would know of it. Since the story was set back in 1942, the German scientists worked on these experiments until the end of WW2, after the Hiroshima bombing, and had to ditch the orphanage. Also, it says that the game originated from the children, adding a bit of explanation behind the lyrics. Overall it is detailed and well-written.

It also includes a small legend on how you can find the orphanage and possibly play Kagome, Kagome with the children and caretakers there. It features creepiness and bandaged children asking you to play with them- not the best combination if I say so myself.

The only thing that I dislike about the Creepypasta, however, is its inaccuracy towards the game, along with the fact that people fully believe it. The writer of the Creepypasta put a disclaimer at the end stating that the story is actually true. However, there are no true documents or evidence supporting the story. I have done tedious amounts of research and have found nothing that leads to this story being real in any way or form. The fact that it's based on a fictional music video alone should be enough proof that there isn't any actual information supporting this story. Even with this lack of evidence, many people chose to believe it anyway.

Another damaging fact is how the Creepypasta states how to play Kagome, Kagome. The Creepypasta claims that one plays the game in a different way. The player that is chosen sits in the middle without being blindfolded, and the children join hands and circle the player, singing the popular song that goes along with the game. However, as they sing, they try to scare the person in the center with sudden movements, loud sounds, or contorted facial expressions. If the player in the middle flinches before the song ends, they lose. 

This description that they provide isn't the way to play Kagome, Kagome at all. In reality, the theory didn't even explain how to play the game correctly and made up different rules. This has caused many people to be misinformed on how to play the traditional Japanese game.

So, what do you think about Kagome, Kagome? Does it really mean anything with its lyrics, or are these just people thinking a bit too much about a children's game?