Strange Pictures

Uketsu is the pseudonym of a popular Japanese YouTuber. Uketsu deliberately cultivates an air of mystery around his identity. He posts wearing a white mask and kabuki-stagehand-like black clothing, and he uses voice-changing technology that allows him to create a gender-ambiguous presentation (though his Japanese publisher has confirmed that Uketsu should be referred to using he/him pronouns). Even the name “Uketsu” is a nonsense word, roughly translating to something like “rain hole.” It was chosen, Uketsu says, because it conveys a “wet, gloomy impression” (Ha, Thu-Huong. “‘Uketsu’: The Internet Phantom Haunting Japan’s Bestseller Lists.” Japan Times, 7 Feb. 2025).

Uketsu had ambitions as a writer before becoming a YouTuber. In 2018, he began writing absurdist articles for the Japanese humor website Omokoro. Frustrated with the limitations of the text-only format, he started posting on YouTube later that same year. Uketsu’s videos are strange and surreal, often parodying common YouTube video formats—the unboxing video, the explainer video, and so on. Sometimes, these videos are intended as visual counterparts to his Omokoro articles.

In 2020, Uketsu wrote about a fictional house with a floor plan that seemed designed for murder. Shortly afterward, he posted a companion video in which he acted out dialogue from this text.