[JapanUrbanLegend] Sqaure

 

Square is one of the urban legends. "Square" means a square room in English. It is also known as "One Night in the Mountain Lodge," "One Night in the Snowy Mountain," "Four People in the Mountain Lodge," and "Four Climbers." There are various versions depending on the region and era, but generally, it goes like this:

Five students from a mountaineering club went to a snowy mountain. When they arrived, the weather was clear, but by noon, it started snowing, and by evening, it turned into a blizzard, causing the students to be stranded. During the journey, one of the five was hit by a falling rock and died, and one of the companions carried the dead friend on their back.

Finally, the four found a mountain lodge and thought they were rescued, but it was uninhabited, and the heating was broken. After laying the dead friend on the floor, the four, thinking they would die if they slept like this, came up with a way to endure until the blizzard stopped.

The method was for the four to sit in the four corners of the room, with the first person touching the wall and walking to the second person's spot to tap their shoulder. The first person would then sit in the second person's spot, and the second person would walk to the third person's spot to tap their shoulder. The second person would sit in the third person's spot, and the third person would tap the fourth person's shoulder, and the fourth person would tap the first person's shoulder, repeating the cycle.

They thought they could endure by staying awake and passing the responsibility to the next person. With this method, the students somehow managed to endure until the blizzard stopped and descended the mountain safely.

However, one of the companions realized that with this method, the first person moves to the second person's spot, so the fourth person would have to move two spots to tap the first person's shoulder.

The story concludes that the dead friend secretly joined as the fifth person to help the companions.

There is also a theory that this "Square" is used as a form of necromancy. Incidentally, if one person intentionally moves two spots, it is possible to play with four people. The person who moves two spots changes each round.

Because it is not just simple horror but includes a mysterious element in the confined situation of being trapped in a mountain lodge during a blizzard, it was used as the material for the first episode "Snow Mountain" of the 2000 Japanese movie "The Most Bizarre Story in the World Movie Special Edition" and appeared in a quiz format in "Heisei Education Committee." Additionally, in Edogawa Rampo's detective novel, there is a scene where Kobayashi boy infiltrates the enemy's hideout alone, walking along the wall in a dark room, continuously circling a seemingly ordinary square room, mistaking it for a strangely large polygonal structure. This can be considered a solo variation of the Square. It is also pointed out that in reality, the fourth person would unconsciously turn the corner while trying to tap the first person's shoulder, making it feasible.