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The Ghost In My Machine

Stories of the Strange and Unusual

The Most Dangerous Games: One-Man Hide and Seek

April 16, 2014 by Lucia

Previously: The Midnight Game.

Instructions for how to play a version of hide and seek alone — that is, with with only one player — first began appearing under the name ひとりかくれんぼ (Hitori Kakurenbo) on Japanese horror bulletin boards like the 2ch occult board circa 2006/2007. The craze spread quickly in Japan; the instructions were copied, and pasted, and copied again on site after site, and YouTubers began uploading videos documenting their experiences playing it.

An abandoned doll

It wasn’t until the fall of 2008 that instructions for One-Man Hide and Seek appeared on an English language site… but perhaps it would have better for everyone if it hadn’t been translated at all.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

As always, play at your own risk.

Players:

  • One principal

Requirements:

  • One stuffed doll with limbs
  • One sack of uncooked rice
  • A pair of nail clippers
  • A needle
  • A length of red thread
  • One sharp edge, such as a knife or pair of scissors
  • A bathroom with bathtub
  • A cup of salt water
  • A television
  • A hiding place
  • Incense or ofuda

Instructions:

The Prelude:

  1. Using your sharp edge, cut open the doll. Remove the stuffing.
  2. Replace the stuffing with dry, uncooked rice. Clip off a piece of your fingernail and place it inside the doll with the rice.
  3. Using the needle and red thread, stitch the doll closed. Without snipping the thread, take the remaining length, wrap it around the doll, and tie off the ends.
  4. Fill the bathtub with water.
  5. Purify the room in which your hiding place is located with the incense or ofuda. Once it has been purified, set up the television in the same room. Place the cup of salt water and the sharp edge inside the hiding place.
  6. Name the doll.

The Main Event:

  1. Begin at precisely 3am. Repeat the following phrase to the doll three times, filling in your own name where appropriate: “[Your Name] is the first it.”
  2. Go to the bathroom. Submerge the doll in the bathtub and leave it there.
  3. Turn out all the lights in your house.
  4. Go to your hiding place and switch on the television. Close your eyes and count to ten.
  5. When you have finished counting, open your eyes, retrieve your sharp edge, and return to the bathroom.
  6. Remove the doll from the bathtub and say the following phrase to it, filling in the doll’s name where appropriate: “I have found you, [Doll’s Name].” Use your sharp edge to cut the red thread binding the doll.
  7. Say the following phrase to the doll, filling in the doll’s name where appropriate: “You are the next it, [Doll’s Name].” Then return the doll to the bathtub.
  8. Quickly return to your hiding place. Remain as silent as possible.

The Ending:

  1. Take a large mouthful of salt water. Do not swallow it; hold it in your mouth. Keep the cup containing the rest of the salt water in your hand.
  2. Emerge from your hiding place and begin looking for the doll. NOTE: The doll may not necessarily be in the bathroom where you left it.
  3. When you find the doll, pour the remaining salt water in the cup over it. Expectorate the salt water in your mouth over the doll as well.
  4. Repeat the following phrase to the doll three times: “I win.”

The Postscript:

  1. Once the game has been completed, allow the doll to dry, then burn it and discard the remains.

Additional Notes:

The rice represents the doll’s internal organs. Additionally, it serves as bait to attract spirits.

The red thread represents a blood vessel and seals whatever spirits you might have attracted inside the doll. Snipping the thread in the Main Event: step 6 releases the spirits.

When naming your doll, do NOT give it your own name. It is also advisable to avoid giving it the name of anyone you know.

Once the game has begun, do NOT do any of the following things until it has been completed:

  • Turn on the lights.
  • Lock any doors, including the front or back doors
  • Make unnecessary noise.
  • Leave your house.

It is not generally advisable to emerge from your hiding place in the Ending: step 2 without both holding the salt water in your mouth and carrying the cup with the remaining salt water in your hand; should anything have found its way into your home during the course of the game, they will act as safeguards and protect you from any harm your visitor or visitors may attempt to inflict upon you. The purpose of the television is to alert you to the presence of these potential visitors. Should it begin to display abnormal behavior, do NOT, under ANY circumstance, leave your hiding place without the salt water.

Do not allow the game to go on for longer than two hours.

Once it has been started, the game MUST be played through to completion. Do NOT attempt to abandon it partway through. To do so would result in disaster.

One-Man Hide and Seek: FAQ.

***

Support The Ghost In My Machine on Patreon for behind-the-scenes access and other bonus content. You can also follow on Twitter @GhostMachine13 and on Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine.

[Photo via]

Filed Under: Games Tagged With: dolls, games you shouldn't play, haunted dolls, Japan, Japanese urban legends, one-man hide and seek, The Most Dangerous Games

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. ivis says

    January 27, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    i’m going to try this and I have a stuffed bear that i’m going to use but should I put the rice in only the torso or in the limbs too?

    Reply
  2. isa says

    September 9, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    I don’t get what’s supposed to be happen. You give the doll a name, leave it in the bathroom alone with the knife somewhere in the middle towards the ending. You stay in your hiding place and what? The doll moves somewhere? With the knife you left with it? What’s so bad about the game?

    Reply
    • Ziaheart says

      February 6, 2021 at 3:10 pm

      The idea is that the doll (or rather, the spirit possessing the doll) will try to find you and stab you back.

      Reply
  3. Sam says

    August 18, 2020 at 4:36 am

    I don’t believe in spirits but like, I can’t really try this. But does anybody have a real experience? I wanna know if this is real or not.

    Reply
  4. the girl Lucas says

    April 25, 2020 at 9:05 am

    wow um I’m scared of all paranormal games if i think of doing them by myself ._.

    Reply
  5. Samantha says

    April 19, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    Ok so me and my cousin played this game, we poured salt and uncooked rice we then put pieces of our hair in the doll lastly we glued it back. After we we went to the sink in the restroom and filled it, we placed it and did the steps after we went back and stabbed it with knife we then hid in my room in the corner and we just waited like 30 seconds we went back and nothing happened we looked in the mirror and started laughing and we said it didn’t work so I looked up the steps and found this and now we are scared because we did everything wrong and kept the doll in my room so far the doors are just opening and the curtains are moving.. This was at 1:24 p.m so I don’t know if we are paranoid or this is really happening… Give us advice please 4•19•20

    Reply
  6. Night says

    February 22, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    Just watch “Snarled” on Youtube

    Reply
    • TheUnluckyAfterlife81 says

      June 9, 2020 at 10:42 pm

      I watch snarled as well

      Reply
  7. ディー says

    August 23, 2019 at 1:33 pm

    映画が隠れて殺されるのを見ただけです。ルールでは、あなたがどれくらいの時間隠れるか見ていませんでした。

    Reply
  8. Chris says

    August 6, 2019 at 7:27 am

    *Puts hands in the air*
    *Sir, may i try this game with my annabelle doll,
    the haunted one*

    Reply
  9. not scared says

    May 30, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    okay I played it and it wasn’t scary at all, but I saw the doll move to me and went to my sister’s room with a knife, but I saved her and threw the doll in the bbq grill and burned it.

    Reply
  10. scared of nothing says

    May 30, 2019 at 9:30 pm

    this game is weird and scary.

    Reply
  11. 666 says

    May 7, 2019 at 12:35 pm

    am I able to make my own doll? I don’t have a doll I can burn. also, I don’t have incense or ofua. can I use anything else?

    Reply
  12. Tess says

    May 4, 2019 at 4:15 pm

    You find it asap

    Reply
  13. Ligma2 says

    March 31, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    I tried it and abandoned it mid game. That was two years ago. I couldn’t find the doll and I got so scared of what was happening at my house that I stayed the night at a friends. That didn’t work because the spirit had followed me. I’ve gone back to my house and it’s even worse there. Every day I feel like crap and I’m living in fear. I called the priest of a local church and he has come over multiple times. He can’t fix it. Every night I have horrible nightmares and I’ve discovered I’ve been sleepwalking lately. One morning I woke up in the middle of the road. I have suicidal thoughts constantly. How do I fix this please help me!

    Reply
    • oh. my. gosh! says

      May 7, 2019 at 12:33 pm

      find the doll. spit salt water, then burn it. also, talking to a priest would help. u may be possessed.

      Reply
  14. jin says

    March 21, 2019 at 4:26 am

    WHAT NO WAY

    Reply
  15. Diana says

    August 11, 2018 at 10:45 pm

    What happens if the doll finds you? And how do you play with 2 or 3 ppl? Me and my brothers wanna play.

    Reply
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