The Most Dangerous Games: The Stairway Ghost Stories Ritual

Previously: Red Door, Yellow Door.

Note: Please don’t copy/paste, republish, or narrate this post on other websites, video platforms, etc. without permission.

Today, a game pulled from a Japanese creepypasta: The “Stairway Ghost Stories” ritual, originally posted in story format to 2ch in 2013. If you like to tell or hear ghost stories, and you’re also into summoning rituals with vague or up-to-interpretation results — this one might be for you.

I’ve only found on English translation of the original story — from Tara Devlin over at the always-excellent Kowabana — where it renders the creepypasta’s description of the ritual as “essentially a game that mixed a round of ghost stories with Kokkuri-san.” That’s true — and, for a Western audience, really all you need to know — but it’s perhaps also worth noting that in the original Japanese, it’s a little more specific than that. It’s not just “ghost stories,” but 百物語, or Hyakumonogatari — that is, “100 Stories,” as in, Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, the Gathering/Game of 100 Ghost Stories.  

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Longtime readers will recall that Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, which dates back at least to the Edo period, involves a group of people telling strange stories to each other, extinguishing a candle or lantern at the end of each one. After the hundredth story is told, something is meant to happen — an entity manifests in the room, a window appears to the spirit world, something like that.

And, indeed, the Stairway Ghost Stories ritual itself does follow the same basic format of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: A person or group of people tells a certain number of ghost stories or weird tales—in this case, one for each step on a set of stairs; after each story is told, an action is undertaken (although not by the storytellers here, as will become clear); and after the final story is told, “something” should appear. I’d even argue that Stairway Ghost Stories is essentially just a variation on Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, adapted for students to play with the resources available to them.

Kokkuri-san, meanwhile, is basically a Ouija board game using a homemade board and a coin as the planchette. You might also see it referred to as the Spirit of the Coin. There’s actually very little in the Stairway Ghost Stories ritual that’s Kokkuri-san like, but Kokkuri-san is so popular and well-known in Japan that my assumption here is that it’s just sort of the go-to reference for supernatural ritual games.

A note on the required location for this game: Architecturally speaking, many Japanese schools are designed with stairwells with landings that span three-ish floors. Many provide access to the roof from the top landing of one of the stairwells — that is, you can take the stairs from the ground floor all the way up to the roof of the building. This is the kind of building you’ll need to play Stairway Ghost Stories — so if you’re not based in Japan, you might have to do a little searching to find a building that fits the bill here.

Interestingly, the word for “stairs” in Japanese (階段) is also pronounced “kaidan.” Just, y’know… FYI.

Below, you’ll find how to play the game. As for what happens when you do play the game? Well, you’ll have to read the original story to find out. Find the Kowabana translation here or listen to it here, and read it in the original Japanese here. You can also use Google Translate to render the Japanese source in whatever language you’re most comfortable with.

As always: Play at your own risk.

Players:

• Storytellers: At least one, or as many as the number of stairs in your chosen game location. (See: Requirements.)

Requirements:

• A multi-story building with a) at least one stairway or stairwell, and b) roof access from the top landing of that stairway or stairwell via a simple door. A three-story school building with a doorway providing roof access from one or more of the stairways is ideal.
• Ghost stories. Strange tales. Unusual anecdotes. Yarns, legends, fairytales. That is: Stories that unsettle in some way, shape, or form. Lots of them.

Instructions:

Making The Preparations:

1. Begin at any time.
2. Gather all participants together and go, as a group, to your chosen building.
3. Once inside your building, go to your chosen stairway.
4. Climb the stairway to the top landing. If the stairway does NOT have a door leading to the roof on the top landing, DO NOT PROCEED. Do not begin playing until you have located, and traveled to, the top landing of a stairway that allows roof access through a door on that landing.
5. As you climb, count the number of steps the staircase contains. If you pass additional landings on your way to the top landing, count those landings as one step each.
6. Do NOT lose count.
7. Once you reach the top, confirm with all participants the number of steps you counted on the way up. Remember this number: It is the number of stories you will need to tell by the game’s end.
8. Now: Sit down on the landing. Gather ‘round in front of the door leading to the roof — but make certain that none of the participants are facing the stairs. It is time to begin.
9. Are you ready?
10. Make sure you’re ready — all of you.
11. Once you begin, DO NOT stop until you have finished.
12. Once you begin, DO NOT look down the stairs until you have finished.
13. Ready?
14. Again: Ready?
15. Good. Begin.

Telling The Tales:

1. Choose one participant to start.
2. If you are that participant: Tell one story. It does not need to be true (although it may be); it does not need to have happened directly to you (although it may have); but whatever it is, it must be a story of the strange or unusual. Tell this story to completion.
3. If you are not that participant: Be still. Be silent. Listen to the story, until it is finished.
4. All of you: Do not look down the stairs.
5. No matter what you may or may not hear from the stairway, do not look.
6. As the story finishes, something will step from the bottom of the staircase to the first step.
7. Remember that.
8. Do not look.
9. After the story has concluded, select another participant.
10. If you are that participant: Tell one story, and tell it to completion.
11. If you are not that participant: Be still. Be silent. Listen to the story, until it is finished.
12. Again, do not look down the stairs.
13. Again, no matter what you may or may not hear from the stairway, do not look.
14. As the story finishes, something will step from the first step to the second step.
15. Remember that.
16. Do not look.
17. Continue in this fashion, telling stories, one by one, participant by participant, until you have told one less than the total number of stairs in the staircase.
18. Do NOT allow the same participant to tell two stories in a row. You MUST alternate storytellers.
19. Do NOT allow tell the same story to be told more than once. A new story MUST be told with each turn.
20. Do not, at ANY POINT, look down the stairs.

The Final Story:

1. When you have reached the final story — the story which will allow the something to step from the staircase’s last step up to the landing on which the participants have gathered — select one participant, one last time.
2. If you are that participant: Tell one more story. Tell it to completion.
3. If you are not that participant: Be still. Be silent. Listen to the story, until it is finished.
4. DO NOT look down the stairs.
5. Now: Wait.
6. At this point, something may happen — something strange. Something unusual.
7. You may see something. You may feel something. You may or may not be able to define or identify exactly what the something is (although perhaps you may) — but you will know that something is different.
8. You may now vacate the premises, exiting down the stairway if there is no other way out.
9. But tread carefully from here on out.

Additional Notes:

It is not recommended that you speak of what happened during your game.

It is not recommended that you play the game again.

And if you must return to that stairway in the future…

…Well. Just… be careful.

And if you hear something behind you while you’re on those stairs…

…Best keep your eyes forward.

Don’t turn around.

And do not — do NOT — look.

Stairway Ghost Stories: FAQ.

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[Photo via 652234/Pixabay]