Brits looking for the latest creepy mystic phenomenon need look no further than a Japanese doll with the 'trapped soul of a little girl'.
'Okiku' is a Japanese doll shrouded in myths and legend, with some believing that it even contains mythical properties.
The ghost legend of Okiku can be traced back to 1918, according to Old City Ghosts.
Per the legend, a Japanese 17-year-old named Eikichi Suzuki bought the doll as a present for his little sister, just two at the time.
The present went down a storm with Suzuki's little sister, who quickly fell in love with and became inseparable from it.
The doll was named 'Okiku' after Suzuki's sister herself and she began treating it as though it was a sister of her own, feeding it and sleeping with it until tragedy struck and the real-life Okiku was struck down and died after a bout of malaria.
The little girl is said to have "died gasping for air, in pain and afraid", all while her special doll was "held firmly in her grasp".
Despite Okiku's affection for her beloved doll, she was not buried alongside it and it was instead placed on a small family shrine.
According to legend, very little appeared to be out of the ordinary after the tragedy, until the hair on the doll reportedly began to grow.
Creepy flickering lights then began to cause unease in the creaking family home, while strange noises and banging is said to have occurred close to Okiku's birthday every year. Shortly after the weird supernatural events are said to have started, the local spiritual experts came to the conclusion Okiku's soul was trapped within the doll itself.
Versions of the doll have now been sold online, but Brits will need to travel to the town of Iwamizawa in Japan, if they want to have a look at the supposed soul of a toddler trapped within.
According to Japanese Ghost Stories: Spirits, Hauntings, and Paranormal Phenomena by Catrien Ross: "One examination of the doll supposedly concluded that the hair is truly that of a young child."
Supernatural beliefs are common in Japan, or have been historically, and much of traditional Japanese art is influenced by it, so reports of a trapped soul may want to be taken with a pinch of 'shio'.
