The Doll on Display Had Moved on Its Own│Japanese Creepypasta

143: Anonymous (2006/08/03 00:08:14)

This isn’t exactly my own experience—it’s something I heard from my mother.
Since it happened to a family member, I doubt it’s a lie.
Her memories are from long ago, so some parts might be a bit vague, though.

When my mom was still a child, she once came home from playing outside and noticed something felt off in the living room.
No one else was home at the time—it was just her.

She thought about what felt strange, and then noticed the position of a doll that was usually displayed in the room.
It was supposed to be inside a sideboard—a cabinet for dishes and ornaments. ※
But for some reason, the doll was lying face-down on the floor.

※ Cultural note:
In Japan, decorative dolls—especially porcelain or traditional dolls—are often treated with care and displayed inside cabinets.

My mom’s mother (my grandmother) was a meticulous person,
so it was impossible that she’d leave the doll lying around like that before going out.
Mom first suspected a burglar.
But nothing else in the room had been touched or disturbed.
Feeling uneasy, she put the doll back where it belonged.

Not long after, my grandmother returned home.
My mom asked her,
“Hey, the doll was on the floor… did you move it?”

My grandmother’s face instantly changed—she turned pale and shouted:
“Is that true!?”
Her panic was so extreme that my mom got scared.
When she asked what had happened, my grandmother only repeated,
“I can’t tell you.”
And she waited for my grandfather to come home from work.

144: Anonymous (same poster, 2006/08/03 00:09:19)

When my grandfather got home, my grandmother immediately told him what happened.
He suddenly slapped her hard and yelled:

“I told you to get rid of it!!”

He was furious.
That very night, he said they were going to a temple over an hour away by car,
and my grandparents left the house together.

My mom was left alone, feeling scared, but eventually went to sleep.
That night, she had a dream.

In her dream, the doll appeared—
flying around the living room.
My mom said,
“It didn’t look like the doll I usually saw. It had a more human-like texture.”
But since it was a dream from long ago, I can’t say what she really saw.

In the morning, my mom woke up and saw my grandparents eating breakfast with exhausted faces.
When she asked what had happened,
they only said,
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
So she went to school still feeling uneasy.

When she came home after school, she saw her grandmother carefully wiping the doll—
especially the soles of its feet.
Mom asked what she was doing, but her grandmother wouldn’t answer.

She caught a glimpse of the doll’s feet:
they were pitch-black, as if covered in mud or soot.
Her grandmother was trying to wipe them clean.

My mom finally felt too creeped out and pressed her grandmother for an explanation.

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145: Anonymous (same poster) — 2006/08/03 00:10:04

What my grandmother finally confessed was this:

She had cherished that doll since she herself was a child.

She treasured it so much that even when she married my grandfather, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away and took it with her.

There had been previous incidents where the doll’s position changed on its own or it got dirty, so she once consulted a Buddhist temple.

According to the head priest, because my grandmother cared for the doll excessively, her “thoughts” or “emotions” had seeped into it, making it a vessel that could attract spiritual entities. ※

At that time, the priest had chanted sutras to calm whatever was inside.
He told her, “If you keep this doll at home, something bad may possess it again. You should leave it at the temple.”
But my grandmother refused, because it was too precious to her.

The previous day, she tried once more to take the doll to the same temple.
But when she arrived, the doll was nowhere to be found.
She came home discouraged… only to find the doll lying at the entrance, its feet pitch-black.

She had placed the doll in a box, so it was impossible for it to fall out on the way.

Throughout the whole confession, my grandmother kept wiping the bottoms of the doll’s feet.
Even as a child, my mother could tell how deeply her grandmother loved the doll—
and yet she also sensed that something was still attached to it.
She said she didn’t know what to do and just kept thinking,
“What’s going to happen now…?”

148: Anonymous (same poster) — 2006/08/03 00:12:07

When my grandfather came home from work, my mother told him everything.

He, too, had apparently suffered terribly the last time the doll “acted up”
(though he didn’t tell her the details).
This time, he was determined to get rid of it no matter what.

He knew my grandmother would resist,
so he decided to take the doll to the temple secretly, after she fell asleep.
My mother agreed—her fear of the doll outweighed everything else.

That night, my grandfather left the house with the doll…
and never came back.

As for the doll—
the next morning, my grandmother found it lying at the entrance again.

After that, she never let anyone see the doll.
And from that time on, something in my grandmother changed.
(Part of it was the shock of my grandfather disappearing, I’m sure.)
My mom ended up living mostly at her uncle’s house.

Time passed, my mother grew up, got married,
and shortly before I was born, my grandmother was hospitalized with an illness.

As my mom was cleaning out her grandmother’s room,
she found that doll stored carefully in a box inside the closet.

She told me she was stunned.

The doll’s face was covered in dark stains, as if something had splashed over it,
and its entire body was plastered with ofuda (paper talismans) and written sutras.
It was in a horrifying condition.

My mother rushed to the temple.
By then, the old priest had passed away, and a successor had taken over.
He came to the house, chanted sutras over the doll, and agreed to take it back to the temple.

When the prayer ended and my mother thanked him,
just as she was about to see him out,
a call came from the hospital:

“Your grandmother is in critical condition.”

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149: Anonymous (same poster) — 2006/08/03 00:14:17

When my mother rushed to the hospital,
my grandmother was already barely alive—
and shortly afterward, she passed away.

According to my mother’s wishes,
my grandmother’s ashes were buried together with the doll,
after the temple had thoroughly purified it.

I don’t know the exact connection between my grandmother and the doll,
nor what really happened to my grandfather.
This is just what my mother told me a little while ago.

Her interpretation was this:

My grandfather must have run into something on his way to deliver the doll to the temple,
and he’s probably no longer alive.
(A missing-person report was filed, but all the eyewitness accounts were suspicious and unreliable.)

The dark stains on the doll were probably splattered blood.

My grandmother realized that—and that’s why she lost her sanity.

Until today, I had only ever been told that both my grandfather and grandmother
“died of illness.”

Hearing the truth now… I’m honestly in shock.
And the worst part?
I’m supposed to visit my grandmother’s grave next week…

150: Anonymous — 2006/08/03 00:23:29

When you go to visit the grave…
imagine if the doll—
the one that was supposed to be buried—
was just quietly sitting in the corner of your room when you got home…

What would you do? (´ω`；)

152: Anonymous (original poster) — 2006/08/03 00:28:50

>>150
Don’t say stuff like that… seriously…
I only heard all this a moment ago,
and this is about my own father going missing,
yet my mom talked about it so casually…

I forgot to mention the type of doll—
it was an Ichimatsu doll. ※

※ Cultural note:
市松人形（Ichimatsu-ningyō） = a traditional Japanese doll with realistic human proportions, often with glass eyes and lifelike hair.
They’re beautiful but frequently appear in Japanese ghost stories because of their realism.