The Faceless Ghost - Noppera-Bō
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hawaii saw a surge of foreigners arriving to work in the sugar and pineapple plantations. These settlers brought not just their labor but their families, their customs... and their ghosts. Among these spectral imports is a particularly chilling tale from Japanese folklore: the Noppera-bo, or faceless ghost.
In Japan, the Noppera-bo is a yokai, a supernatural being that resembles a human but is marked by its eerie absence of facial features. Known for startling the living, these faceless apparitions are typically benign, though their appearance is deeply unsettling. Legends often describe the Noppera-bo as initially appearing as an ordinary person before their facial features vanish, leaving only a blank, featureless expanse where their face should be.
This ghostly presence has reportedly been spotted in several places across Hawai‘i, including the Waiakea Villas in Hilo, an intermediate school in Kailua, and the Moanalua school campus. One of the most notorious sightings occurred in May 1959 at a school in Palolo. Children there spoke of seeing a faceless old man and a faceless woman, prompting a flurry of concern among parents and police. Despite the principal’s attempts to downplay the stories as exaggerations, the legend grew.
One particularly harrowing account involves a girl at the Wai‘alae Drive-In Theater in Kaimuki. Around midnight, she entered a restroom to apply lipstick and saw a figure in the mirror—a faceless woman with half a body and long hair. When she turned around, the figure vanished, and the restroom door slammed shut, trapping her inside. The girl fainted from terror and was hospitalized.
Another story recounts a woman who encountered a faceless figure in a restroom. She saw another woman combing her hair in front of the mirror. When the figure turned slightly, revealing a featureless face, the first woman was so horrified that she suffered a nervous breakdown and ended up in the hospital.
Years later, while hosting a bus tour for my late boss, Glen Grant, we passed the old drive-in site. I shared the tale of the faceless woman, only to be approached afterward by an elderly Japanese woman. She revealed that the story was based on her friend’s life.
According to her, she and her friend had once dreamt of their future weddings. But as they grew older, they lost touch. One day, she saw her friend, now an older woman, in Honolulu, dressed in an extravagant white summer yukata. When asked why she wore such attire, her friend responded, “Because I can. And you no can.”
It turned out her friend had squandered her inheritance on lavish purchases and was deeply in debt. Her children, ashamed, had moved away. The elderly woman described how, one night, she was awakened by a mournful wail. Her husband, annoyed, went to the window to quiet the noise, but she knew it was the ghost of her friend. Clad in her white yukata, her friend wandered the streets, lamenting her fall from grace. Her friend’s loss of face had condemned her to roam as a Noppera-bo, the faceless ghost.
To this day, sightings of the faceless woman persist at places like Times in Kahala and the downstairs bathroom at Kahala Mall. If you’ve encountered her, we’d love to hear your story.
Beneath the tropical beauty of Hawai‘i lies a world of ghosts and legends. Mysteries of Hawaii—voted the nation’s best ghost tour in 2023 & 2024—takes you deep into the chilling history of Honolulu and Waikiki. Experience stories of real hauntings told by master storyteller Lopaka Kapanui.
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