Kotsubo Tunnel

Kotsubo Tunnel is a nickname locals give to a short chain of road tunnels on Route 311, connecting Kamakura and Zushi in Kanagawa Prefecture. It has carried a haunted reputation since at least the early Showa era.

What is verifiable

The tunnels are real and in everyday use, sitting close to a working crematorium on the Zushi side — the detail most consistently repeated across sources, and the most plausible seed for the rumors. Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata used the tunnel as the setting for a supernatural short story, “Mugon” (“Silence”).

The legend

Local rumor holds that a young woman's ghost appears in front of vehicles at night near the tunnel closest to the crematorium, and that drivers sometimes find unexplained handprint-like marks on their windshield. A frequently repeated anecdote about a 1970s celebrity seeing a blue-white handprint-shaped light strike her windshield could not be verified to any primary account.

What we could not verify

Some English-language retellings describe a 1967 train collision killing 13 people near the tunnel's exit, followed by “1980s murders.” We found no corroborating record — no transport ministry accident summary, news archive, or local history — and this narrative does not match Japanese-language sources' description of the site. We treat it as unverified and likely embellishment.

Can you visit: Yes. It is a public road tunnel in regular use between Kamakura and Zushi.