Haunted Japan: Old Dogakuji Tunnel

Did you know that we have channel memberships  now? If you’d like to help support this channel, get some exclusive Kowabana emotes to use in the  comments, as well as an exclusive badge by your name, click that join button now to find out more.  Every bit of support really helps! Thanks guys. Dogakuji Tunnel. Also known as Ishii Tunnel.  There were actually two of them, a new one and an old one, and of course, it was the old one that  concerned him tonight. It was the old one that was said to be

haunted, after all. Old Dogakuji Tunnel  had long been sealed shut, but he still wanted to check it out, so he decided to go with three of  his friends. They stopped the car when it was unable to go any further and then walked the rest  of the kilometre to the actual tunnel in darkness. “Are we there yet?” “Is this tunnel even real?”  his friends complained, but before long there it was, right in front of them. “Wait? It’s  entirely sealed!” Before them stood the tunnel, yet the entrance was se

aled from top to bottom  with not even a tiny gap to slip inside. Well, that was a waste of a trip. Not much they could  do with a tunnel they couldn’t even enter! They were about to turn around and go back  the way they came when suddenly they realised something was off. They couldn’t move… They were  only barely able to speak, and after checking that everyone was stuck to the spot, they agreed  they should get the hell out of there right away. But for some reason, they couldn’t. It  was like,

after coming all this way, it truly would be a waste to at least not  touch the tunnel first. And so he ran over to the tunnel and touched it, now able to move.  “Don’t move!” “Stay right there!” For some reason, his friends yelled at him, but when  he turned around to smile at them, they were looking at him with  fear written all over their faces. “Y-You can’t see that?” “See what?” Apparently  they saw hands reaching out of the tunnel, and when he touched it, they tried to  pull him in. He cer

tainly wasn’t psychic, but the expression on his  friends’ faces was the most terrifying thing of all. Although they  were able to safely escape that night, he didn’t tell his friends that he later went  back by himself to touch that tunnel again… Old Dogakuji Tunnel (also commonly known as  Ishii Tunnel for the town it can be found in) was completed in 1920 in Tokushima City and was  open for use until March 2004 when a new tunnel was build and it was finally sealed for good. As  with many othe

r old tunnels around the country, this one has long had rumours of hauntings,  even before it was closed to the public, although they have only grown stronger since then. One of the more common ghosts said to haunt this  old tunnel is that of a man covered in blood. It’s said that he hung himself inside the tunnel,  and after that, his spirit was unable to move on. He continued to linger in and around the tunnel,  terrifying people who passed through it. Even now, decades after the tunnel entran

ce has been  sealed shut, there are rumours that the man’s ghostly hands can be seen reaching out of  the tunnel to try to drag people in with him. Rumours of this hanged, bloody man are perhaps  the oldest, but he’s not the only ghost said to haunt the tunnel. There’s also a woman who  lurks nearby (said by some to be a mother who killed herself inside the tunnel with her child),  and according to some, numerous ghostly hands can be seen reaching from inside the tunnel  at once, not just those

of the hanged man. Old Dogakuji Tunnel is also said to be a regular  haunting spot of one of my favourites, Turbo Granny. Perhaps she enjoys the kilometre-long  run from the tunnel to the sealed road exit down below. And, back when the tunnel was still  open for business, there were rumours that if you (successfully) passed through it, you might  suddenly find a mysterious and creepy text message on your phone from an unknown sender  asking, “What did you do inside the tunnel?” These days, there

are rumours that even  trying to touch the tunnel will result in sudden paralysis. Is it the spirits trying  to keep people from leaving, or perhaps, from trying to get inside…? It is now quite  impossible to enter the tunnel through any means as it’s sealed tight with concrete,  not even a inch to spare. Even the Gap Woman herself would struggle to get through  as there are, quite frankly, no gaps. Unlike Inunaki Tunnel or other “sealed” tunnels that  can still be scaled and entered, this one

is quite literally shut tight and nothing short of  destroying the concrete itself will let you in. Another story tells of a young man who  visited the tunnel long after it had been sealed shut. He took a photo there,  but when he returned and got it developed, he noticed some odd noise throughout the  photo. There was nothing wrong with his camera or the other photos, so, intrigued, he  returned to the tunnel with the photo in hand. Oddly, when he took it out to check it again,  the noise in th

e photo was now gone… Creeped out, he got back in his car and looked in the  rear-view mirror to notice a dark figure now sitting in the back of his car… When he turned  around to look for real, the figure was gone. There are also claims that the numerous  abandoned buildings you can find on the way to the tunnel may be haunted as well.  Abandoned houses are hardly new in Japan, particularly in old areas such as this  where roads have been closed due to better, newer ones having been built nearb

y. With  buildings this old, it’s not strange that they might make some noises every now and then  as nature reclaims them and they begin to fall apart. Or maybe ghostly residents attracted by  the nearby tunnel really have moved in, who knows? At any rate, despite being sealed shut for many  years now, Old Dogakuji Tunnel, or Ishii Tunnel, or Dogakuji Monster Tunnel, or whatever moniker  you wish to use, remains one of the most popular ghost spots in all of Tokushima that you can still  visit.

Just be careful of the grabby ghostly hands if you do decide to check it out… Who knows  what’s inside there these days… But what did you guys think of this one? Let me know in the  comments below and I’ll see you again next time!