Ashimagari足まがり
the thing that tangles your legs
RegionalKagawa's night roads: something wraps around your legs as you walk — "cotton-like" to the touch, never seen, tripping travelers.
Field-guide entries
In this wing
Azukiarai小豆洗い
the bean washer
RegionalBy a stream at dusk: shoki...
Azukibabaa小豆婆
the bean-grinding hag
RegionalFrom Miyagi down through Kantō: the sound of azuki beans being ground by a riverside at dusk, attributed to an old woman — azukibabaa, also azuki-togibabaa.
Azukihakari小豆はかり
the beans counted in the ceiling
RegionalIndoors, from the ceiling: "the sound of scattering beans" — a few at first, growing "increasingly loud, eventually resembling a whole bushel" — plus footsteps, geta-clatter, and water-splashing; invisible, harmless, Edo-attested (the classic haunt: a residence in Azabu, Tokyo).
Betobeto-sanべとべとさん
the footsteps behind you
RegionalWalking a dark road, you hear footsteps behind you — beto, beto, beto — matching yours.
Biwa-bokuboku琵琶牧々
the lute that plays itself
ChronicleA biwa lute for a head, a fine kimono, seated in the tatami room at night "singing and plinking while lamenting the neglect of his former owner".
Hatahiro機尋
the loom-serpent
Edo catalogCloth off the loom become a serpent: a woman weaving while "harboring resentment toward her absent husband imbues the fabric with her malice," and the woven bolt transforms into a snake that goes searching for the husband — Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1784).
Kawaakago川赤子
the river baby
Edo catalogA baby-shaped thing, upper body only, among the reeds of a riverbank — Sekien, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779).
Kodama木霊
the tree spirit
ChronicleThe kodama is the spirit in the old tree — and the voice that answers you in the mountains.
Koto-furunushi琴古主
the old master of the koto
Edo catalogA broken koto sprouts eyes and a mouth, its snapped strings hanging like unbound hair.
Kuni-yuzuri国譲り
the land transfer (grouped myth entry)
ChronicleBefore the descent, the eviction: heaven wants the middle land (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni), and the campaign to make Ōkuninushi cede it runs through three envoys:
Minobi蓑火
the raincoat fire
Edo catalogCrossing near Lake Biwa on a rainy night, fireballs bloom on your straw raincoat "like firefly light" — cold, sparkling "like twinkling stars," and — the signature — multiplying when brushed at.
Nue鵺
the night chimera
ChronicleMonkey's head, tanuki's body, tiger's limbs, a snake for a tail, and a voice like a bird crying in the dark — the nue is Japan's chimera, and its most famous appearance is precisely dated: 1153, over the imperial palace.
Oboroguruma朧車
the hazy carriage with a face
Edo catalogA hazy night on Kamo's great road; "the sound of a creaking carriage," and then the strange form: a semi-transparent ox-cart whose front panel is one giant face — Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi.
Oitekeboriおいてけ堀
the moat that demands your catch
ChronicleEdo's Honjo lowlands, Kansei era (1789–1801): fishermen with a good day's catch at the moat hear, from the water, "oiteke...
Onmoraki陰摩羅鬼
the bird that rises from the unprayed-for corpse
ChronicleA crane-shaped demon in black plumage, eyes "luminous like firelight," shrieking and beating its wings — Sekien, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779).
Oshira-samaおしら様
the god of the girl and the horse
RegionalTōhoku's household god comes in pairs: two wooden dolls — mulberry wood, 30 cm — one male or horse-faced, one female, wrapped in layer upon layer of cloth garments, kept in the alcove.
Ōzatō大座頭
the giant blind minstrel in the storm
ChronicleA giant blind minstrel — "tattered trousers and wooden clogs, carrying a staff," "wandering the night in wind and rain," claiming he's on his way to the pleasure houses to play shamisen — Sekien, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (1784).
Shamichōrō三味長老
the shamisen elder
Edo catalogThe third chair of Sekien's string section: a master's shamisen, discarded after its player's day, risen as the "shamisen elder" — "the spirit of the instrument of one who led this art," per his caption [ja-shamichoro, per Inada/Tanaka 1992].
Suzuhikohime鈴彦姫
the bell princess
Edo catalogA woman whose face is a bell, crowned with the kagura-suzu — the tiered ritual bell-cluster shaken in shrine dance.
Tengu-daoshi天狗倒し
the tree that falls and isn't there
RegionalNight in the mountains: axe-strokes, the creak, the thunderous crash of a great tree coming down — and in the morning, no stump, no trunk, nothing felled.
Umi-zatō海座頭
the blind minstrel on the water
Edo catalogA blind minstrel standing on the open sea, biwa in hand, staff planted on the water — Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) and the Matsui Library's Hyakki Yagyō Emaki.
Uwanうわん
the shout
Edo catalogIn an old house or ruin, out of nowhere: "UWAN!" — a shout with no shouter.
Warai-onna笑い女
the laughter that recruits the landscape
RegionalTosa's laughing woman, from the Edo–Meiji Tosa Bakemono Ehon: she appears on the 1st, 9th, and 17th of each month, and "encounters left people half-dead".
Yamabiko山彦
the echo
Edo catalogShout into a valley and something shouts back.
Yamajijii山爺
the mountain grandfather
RegionalA gray-furred old man of the Shikoku mountains, hip-high, on one leg — with a voice that can "shake the sky and earth, make leaves fall, and make the nearby trees and rocks move"; accounts claim burst eardrums and deaths by shout alone.
Yanari家鳴
the house that creaks
Edo catalogAt night the house shakes — beams tick, walls knock, furniture trembles — and no one is doing it.
Yaroka-mizuヤロカ水
the flood that asks permission
RegionalThe Kiso River in storm.
Yonaki-ishi夜泣き石
the night-crying stone
RegionalJapan's crying stones split into two working categories:
Yosuzume夜雀
the night sparrow
RegionalOn a mountain path after dark: chi, chi, chi — a sparrow's chirp where no sparrow should be awake, keeping pace with you.