It sometimes happens that you take or come across photographs that have something mysterious and even disturbing about them: a detail, a shadow, a shape can confuse and lead you to formulate the most bizarre hypotheses . One of these is the photograph we will talk about in this article, which has become the protagonist of numerous doubts and assumptions. Let’s find out more.
In 2014, a user shared some images on the Reddit platform, one of which caused enormous confusion due to a particular detail .
“My friend Martin Springall took this photo of his daughter in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, “ the post’s author explained. “He’s a little too upset about all this to post it himself, so I’m doing it for him, because I’m fascinated by it and would like some feedback. I blurred out the little girl’s face, obviously.”
The mystery of the photo
The user added that when the photos were taken, no one was around, but one detail that was completely out of place can be seen. “Certainly no one was anywhere near her. She took about five photos in this spot in the span of about two minutes. I’ve known this guy for years and I trust him. I’m not even saying this is anything – I just want feedback.”
Obiaruf then showed the images , bringing users’ attention to a pair of alleged boots , a garment that is unlikely to be worn on the beach. “I mean, it’s obviously hot given how the little girl is dressed,” he wrote on Reddit.
Whose boots are they?
Indeed, in the image that went viral and was taken that July, in the location about 50 km from Tokyo , there seems to be something, or rather, someone . Behind the little girl’s legs , we seem to see something similar to a pair of boots, which many have identified as belonging to a samurai , coming to the conclusion that it was the ghost of Katagiri Katsumoto , a daimyō who lived between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
After years in which this photo caused a sensation and aroused the interest of many – triggering the most absurd hypotheses – the truth seems to have come out :
First of all it seems that the user has created a little attention on the photograph ad hoc , knowing however the background that led to the optical effect of the photo. In fact, it simply seems that behind the little girl there is a person in all respects and that the timing of the shot and a game of perspective did the rest.
In fact, the little girl is on a raised part of the ground and behind her the ground is sloping . It is very common for smartphones to play tricks on perspective when there are multiple levels of height in the scenario.
In conclusion, many inferences have been made about this photo over the years, but it all seems to boil down to a banal camera shooting error .