伝説 · 案内人 ハンマ
Every temple in Kansai hides a story the guidebooks leave out. Tony tells them on the spot where they happened, and some of them he wrote himself.
File no. 1 · The storyteller
Tony Hanma is Spanish and has lived in Osaka since April 2026. Before guiding he wrote a book, Detrás del Rostro ("Behind the Face"), about what people hide behind the face they show. In Japan he found the same theme on every corner: foxes that turn into women, ghosts that count plates and demons who want their arm back.
That is why his tours are not a list of temples. They are an investigation: every stop has a clue, a real legend and the reason why Japanese people still respect it today. He tells them in English, Spanish or Arabic.
What Tony tells his guests is not on the signs: why brides avoid a certain bridge in Kyoto, what the servant in the Himeji well looks for at night, who taught Japan's most famous samurai to fight, or why Osaka blamed a statue for its bad luck for 38 years. Every stop becomes a clue, and by the end of the day travellers understand Japan through its fears and beliefs, not just its monuments.
Many of his guests hear these stories for the first time in their own language. And at the end of the tour, Tony tells them one they will not find in any book, because he wrote it.
File no. 2 · The real legends
01 / 15
Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto
The fox statues (kitsune) at Fushimi Inari are not the god: they are its messengers. Many hold a key in their mouth, the key to the rice granary, or a jewel that grants wishes. In Japanese folklore a fox lives for centuries, grows a new tail every hundred years and can take human form.
What I tell guests there: why companies pay for the torii, and what is written on the back of each one.
02 / 15
Himeji Castle
Inside the grounds of Himeji Castle there is a well with its own name: the Okiku-ido. The legend of Banchō Sarayashiki says that a servant, Okiku, was accused of losing one of ten precious plates and was thrown into this well. Since then, at night, she can be heard counting: "one, two… nine", and she screams when she cannot find the tenth.
What I tell guests there: how this story shaped the long-haired ghosts of Japanese horror films.
03 / 15
Mount Kurama, north of Kyoto
As a boy, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japan's most famous samurai, lived hidden at Kurama temple. According to legend, at night he went down into the forest, where Sōjōbō, the king of the tengu (long-nosed, winged mountain spirits), taught him to fight with the sword.
What I tell guests there: where to find the tree roots said to have been his training ground.
04 / 15
Rokudō Chinnō-ji, Kyoto
Ono no Takamura (802-853) was a poet and court official. Legend says that every night he went down the well of this small temple into the world of the dead to help King Enma judge souls, and came back by morning for his job at the palace. The well is still there.
What I tell guests there: why this neighbourhood was called "the border between the two worlds".
05 / 15
Ichijō Modoribashi, Kyoto
According to tradition, in 918 the scholar Miyoshi Kiyoyuki briefly came back to life on this bridge as his father's funeral procession crossed it. Since then it has been called Modoribashi, "the bridge of return". Many brides still avoid crossing it, so they never "return" to their parents' home.
What I tell guests there: the demon who, in another legend, lost an arm next to this bridge.
06 / 15
Seimei Shrine (Kyoto) and Shinoda forest (Izumi, Osaka)
Abe no Seimei was the most famous onmyōji (court astrologer and diviner) of old Japan. Legend says his mother was Kuzunoha, a white fox from the Shinoda forest in Osaka, who took the form of a woman and fled when her son discovered who she really was.
What I tell guests there: the five-pointed star you will see all over the shrine.
07 / 15
Kasuga Taisha and Nara Park
When Kasuga shrine was founded in the 8th century, the god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara riding a white deer. That is why Nara's deer are considered sacred messengers. For centuries, killing one was punishable by death.
What I tell guests there: why the deer "bow", and what happens if you show them empty hands.
08 / 15
Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
In Japanese, "to jump from the stage of Kiyomizu" means to take a big risk. It is not just a saying: in the Edo period people believed that whoever jumped the 13 metres and survived would have their wish granted. Temple records list 234 jumps between 1694 and 1864, and most survived. It was banned in 1872.
What I tell guests there: where they landed, and why the slope was full of trees.
09 / 15
Dōtonbori, Osaka
In 1985 the Hanshin Tigers won the league, and fans celebrating on Ebisu bridge threw a Colonel Sanders statue into the canal. The team went decades without another Japan Series title and Osaka called it "the Curse of the Colonel". The statue was found at the bottom of the canal in 2009; the Tigers won the Japan Series again in 2023.
What I tell guests there: Japan's most modern urban legend, on the exact spot where it was born.
10 / 15
Mount Ōe, north of Kyoto
Shuten-dōji was the leader of the oni (demons) who kidnapped people in Kyoto around the year 1000. The warrior Minamoto no Raikō climbed Mount Ōe disguised as a monk with his four retainers and defeated him. One of them, Watanabe no Tsuna, had already cut off the arm of the demon Ibaraki-dōji, who gives his name to the city of Ibaraki in Osaka.
What I tell guests there: why the Japanese throw beans at demons every February.
11 / 15
Dōjō-ji, Wakayama
A young monk, Anchin, promised to come back for Kiyohime and broke his word. She chased him to the Hidaka river, threw herself into the water and came out as a great serpent. The monk hid under the bell of Dōjō-ji temple; the serpent coiled around the bell and heated it with her rage until he died inside. The temple still tells the story with illustrated scrolls.
What I tell guests there: why this story ended up in Noh and kabuki, and what happened to the bell.
12 / 15
Uji Bridge and Hashihime Shrine, Uji
In one of the oldest versions, a woman driven mad by jealousy immersed herself in the Uji river for twenty-one days to become a demon and take revenge. Since then the bridge princess is said to guard the crossing and to resent other people's love: that is why many couples avoid walking across Uji Bridge together.
What I tell guests there: the tiny Hashihime shrine, two minutes from the bridge, that almost nobody visits.
13 / 15
Sarusawa Pond, Nara
A court lady, Uneme, lost the emperor's favour and drowned herself in Sarusawa Pond. It is said her spirit could not bear to look at the water where she died, so the small Uneme shrine by the pond turned around in a single night to face away from it. It still faces the other way today.
What I tell guests there: how to find the turned shrine without anyone pointing it out.
14 / 15
Main keep of Himeji Castle
At the very top of Himeji Castle's keep lives, according to legend, Osakabe-hime, a yokai princess who shows herself to the lord of the castle only once a year. Whoever climbs to her floor without permission loses the way back. A small shrine on the top floor of the keep still remembers her.
What I tell guests there: the story of the samurai who climbed up at night to see her.
15 / 15
Urashima Shrine, Ine (northern Kyoto prefecture)
A fisherman saved a turtle and was invited to the palace of the sea god. He spent what he thought were three days there. When he returned, three hundred years had passed and nobody knew him. He opened the box he had been told never to open and aged in an instant. Urashima Shrine on Ine Bay keeps the box that tradition says is the original.
What I tell guests there: why this is one of the oldest time-travel stories in the world.
File no. 3 · Lost places
Abandoned, ruined or reputedly haunted places, with their real story and how to see them legally. Many abandoned sites in Japan are private property: entering without permission is illegal and dangerous.
Abandoned in 1974
Hashima Island, Nagasaki
A coal-mining island ringed by sea walls that looks like a warship from the water. In 1959 more than 5,000 people lived there in a handful of concrete buildings, one of the highest population densities ever recorded. When the mine closed in 1974 it emptied within weeks. It has been a World Heritage Site since 2015, and it is also a place of memory: during the war Korean and Chinese labourers were forced to work there.
How to see it: tour boats from Nagasaki port; landing depends on the sea.
Ruined Meiji-era forts
Kada, Wakayama
Twenty minutes by boat from Kada lies an island where the army built artillery batteries in the Meiji era to protect Osaka Bay. They never fired in a war. Today they are brick tunnels and moss-covered stairways inside the forest, and many people call it "Laputa island".
How to see it: ferry from Kada port (near Wakayama); bring a torch for the tunnels.
Abandoned around 1600
Takeda Castle ruins, Asago (Hyōgo)
All that is left of this castle are its stone walls on a mountaintop. But on cold autumn mornings the valley fills with mist and the ruins seem to float on a sea of clouds. That is why it is called "the Machu Picchu of Japan".
How to see it: train to Takeda and a walk up; for the clouds, go at dawn from September to November to the Ritsuunkyō viewpoint.
Closed since 1993
Maya Kankō Hotel, Kobe
An art deco hotel built in 1929 on top of Mount Maya, above Kobe. It closed, reopened and closed again several times, and the 1995 earthquake left it empty for good. Because of its concrete silhouette among the trees it is called "the Gunkanjima of the mountains". Today it is protected as a cultural property.
How to see it: from outside, next to the Mount Maya ropeway; inside only on the official guided tours held occasionally. Entering on your own is forbidden.
In use, said to be haunted
Kiyotaki, northwest Kyoto
A narrow single-lane tunnel with a traffic light at each end, on the road from Arashiyama to Mount Atago. It is one of Kyoto's most famous "shinrei spots" (spirit places). It is said the light changes for no reason and that some drivers see someone in the exit mirror who was not in the car.
How to see it: it is a public road; go by bus or from the Kiyotaki trail, never on foot inside the tunnel.
Closed in 2006, demolished in 2016-2017
Nara
An amusement park opened in 1961, with its castle, its wooden roller coaster and its monorail. It closed in 2006 and stood abandoned for ten years, the rides rusting in the grass, until it became the most photographed abandoned place in Kansai. It was demolished in 2016-2017.
How to see it: you no longer can; only the photos and the story remain, which I tell on the way to Nara.
Active
Awashima Jinja, Kada (Wakayama)
In Japan, when nobody wants to just throw a doll away, it is brought here. Thousands of dolls, figurines and soft toys fill the steps and altars of the shrine, all of them facing the visitor. Every 3 March the dolls are sent off in boats set adrift on the sea.
How to see it: on foot from Kada station, the same day as Tomogashima. Visitors are asked not to photograph the dolls up close.
Active (closed in winter)
Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori
A volcanic landscape of grey rocks, the smell of sulphur and a turquoise lake. For centuries it has been seen as the gateway to the afterlife. At its summer festival, blind mediums called itako claim to speak with the dead. It is one of the three most sacred places in Japan.
How to see it: bus from Mutsu; open May to October.
File no. 4 · Legends by Tony Hanma
These are not old folklore: they are original stories by Tony Hanma (2026), inspired by real places and customs. He tells them at the end of each tour, on the spot where they are set. If you quote them, credit them as "legends by Tony Hanma".
Fushimi Inari, Kyoto
In Japanese, five yen is go-en, the same sound as "a good bond". On the mountain they say a fox with no statue waits for those who climb alone after sunset. It asks for nothing but a five-yen coin. To whoever gives it, it returns the shortest way down. To whoever does not, it returns the long way… and, at the foot of the mountain, a stranger who will become their friend. That is why Tony always climbs with two coins.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Kasuga Taisha, Nara
Kasuga has about three thousand lanterns, and almost all of them carry the name of whoever donated them. One has no name. In Tony's story, it lights itself on the night someone in Nara finds something they had lost: a letter, a ring, a person. The deer know before anyone else, and gather around it in silence.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Keihan line, between Osaka and Kyoto
On the last train of the night there is always a woman wearing a Noh mask. She does not sleep or look at her phone. Tony wrote that she is the keeper of all the faces people leave behind at work: the kind boss's face, the smiling employee's face. When you reach your station, she gives you back your own. If you get off without looking at her, you go home wearing the face of the day.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Arashiyama bamboo grove, Kyoto
Bamboo can grow a metre in a day and, in this story, it also listens. It counts every visitor's steps, and as you leave the grove the wind knocks the stalks together a certain number of times. Whoever matches their own steps will return to Kyoto. Tony says nobody has ever counted right, because everyone forgets to count the moment they walk in.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Streets of Gion, Kyoto
In Japan it is said that an object that reaches a hundred years old gains a soul; there is even an umbrella yokai, the kasa-obake. In Tony's story, in Gion there is a paper umbrella nobody ever bought. It appears at the door of whoever forgot theirs on a day it will rain, and vanishes when the rain stops. It asks for just one thing: that you leave it open for a moment before giving it back, so it can see the street.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
JR Osaka Loop Line
The Osaka Loop Line has nineteen stations. Tony wrote that, for whoever falls asleep on the last loop of the night, there is a twentieth. There it is always the hour you were happiest in Osaka, and the platform smells of what you ate that day. You can get off, but the train only waits as long as a song lasts. Whoever gets back on in time returns to Osaka within a year.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Nara Park
Everyone knows Nara's deer bow to ask for crackers. What nobody tells you, according to Tony, is that there is one, old and with a folded ear, who bows to no one. He stands in front of the cracker stall and waits. Every tourist who buys a pack, without knowing why, gives the first cracker to him. Tony has been trying not to do it for months. He still has not managed.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Dōtonbori, Osaka
Takoyaki trays come with eight balls. Tony swears that, every so often, at a Dōtonbori stall whose name he refuses to give, a tray comes out with nine. Whoever eats the ninth says exactly what they think for one hour, and cannot stop. That is why, Tony says, nobody in Osaka accepts takoyaki from a stranger before an important meeting.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Kyoto temples on New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve, Kyoto's temples ring their bells 108 times, once for each earthly desire to leave behind. Tony wrote that if you stay alone after everyone has gone, sometimes there is one more. The 109th toll is not for forgetting: it is for remembering something you lost. Nobody knows who rings it. The next morning, the bell's wooden striker is always wet, as if it had rained on it alone.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
Osaka Castle
A traveller took a photo in front of Osaka Castle and, looking at it, saw that his shadow was missing. He came back the next day: in the new photo there were two. Tony says the shadows of people in a hurry stay behind, strolling around the castle gardens, and come back when their owner finally sits down to look. So if you ever go, sit by the moat for a while before you leave. Just in case your shadow is still out walking.
Original story by Tony Hanma, 2026
File no. 5 · What people ask most
Among the best known are the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Princess Kaguya), Urashima Tarō, Momotarō and the kitsune (fox) legends. In Kansai, the ones you can actually visit are the foxes of Fushimi Inari, Okiku's well at Himeji Castle and the sacred deer of Nara.
Yokai are the supernatural beings of Japanese folklore: shape-shifting foxes (kitsune), mountain tengu, river kappa, oni (demons) and ghosts (yūrei). Many are tied to a specific place, and in Kyoto whole streets are linked to them, such as Ichijō street.
Fushimi Inari (foxes), Rokudō Chinnō-ji (the well to the underworld), Ichijō Modoribashi bridge, Seimei Shrine, Kiyomizu-dera and Mount Kurama (tengu). They can be combined in one day by train and on foot.
Tony Hanma is a Spanish private tour guide based in Osaka since April 2026. He guides in Spanish, English and Arabic in Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe and Himeji, is the author of the Spanish book "Detrás del Rostro", and has written original stories set in Kansai places, such as "The fox who charged five-yen coins" and "The mask on the last train".
Yes. Tony Hanma runs a private legends tour of Kyoto (or Kyoto and Nara) in English, Spanish or Arabic, with hotel pick-up: half day ¥38,000 and full day ¥58,000 per group of up to 6 people. Book on WhatsApp at +34 634 193 106.
Yes. In the Edo period people believed that surviving a jump from the stage of Kiyomizu would grant a wish. Temple records list 234 jumps between 1694 and 1864, and most survived. The government banned it in 1872.
The legends tour
Private tour for your group only, with hotel pick-up. Half day (4 h) ¥38,000, full day (8 h) ¥58,000, price per group of up to 6 people. Trains and tickets are paid separately.
