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Where the JR Kansai Main Line crosses from Osaka into Nara Prefecture near Kashiwara City, there are two tunnels running side by side. One is still in active use, carrying trains through the same stretch of mountain it has for decades. The other — older, built of brick during the Meiji era, now sealed off — is the one locals call Shibayama Tunnel, or by its earlier name, Kashiwara Tunnel. It’s the sealed one that carries the ghost story.
The Legend
Construction records place a tunnel-building push at this rail line in the early 1950s, and it’s from around that period that the local legend dates: a mother and daughter, walking near the tunnel during construction, were caught when a rockslide sealed the entrance and trapped them inside. The mother reportedly escaped. The daughter, legend says, was never found and is believed to remain in the tunnel still. Visitors have long claimed to hear a girl’s screams echoing through the passage at night, alongside sightings of a woman with long black hair — said to be the mother, still searching for the child she couldn’t save. A quieter, more ritual detail has attached itself to the story since: making a wish while standing inside is said to see it granted, while lighting a candle there supposedly brings on a sudden chill.
What’s Actually Verifiable
We could not confirm the rockslide or the lost child against any documented construction-era incident. What is real is the physical setup that makes the story plausible on its face: a genuinely older, Meiji-period brick tunnel, sealed and disused, sitting immediately next to a tunnel still in daily service — a contrast that does a lot of the atmospheric work here. Tunnel construction in mid-20th-century Japan did carry real risk, and accidents during comparable building booms elsewhere in the country are documented, which may explain why this kind of story attaches so readily to infrastructure from the period even without a specific confirmed case behind it.
Two Tunnels, One Reputation
The active-versus-sealed pairing is unusual among the tunnels this site has covered. Most haunted tunnels are either fully abandoned or fully in use; Shibayama is both, within a few meters of itself, which means visitors get an unusually direct before-and-after comparison — a working tunnel that looks completely ordinary, standing next to its older twin that looks exactly like what people picture when they imagine a haunted one. Despite what are described as repeated local calls to tear the sealed tunnel down over the years, it remains standing, which has effectively kept the legend alive alongside it.
Can You Visit?
The active JR line remains a functioning route through the area; the older, sealed tunnel is not open for entry and shouldn’t be treated as accessible regardless of what visitor accounts describe. Anyone in the area should stay well clear of the operating rail line and respect posted restrictions around the disused structure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did a rockslide really trap a mother and daughter at Shibayama Tunnel?
We could not verify this against any documented construction-era incident from the tunnel’s early-1950s build.
Is it true there are two tunnels here, not one?
Yes — a still-operating JR Kansai Main Line tunnel sits beside an older, sealed Meiji-era brick tunnel. The ghost story is attached to the sealed one.
Ghost-Hunting Gear & Further Reading
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