Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Big Arm
Category: Plant
The Myth
In Shisō County of Banshū there once lived a man named Yamanaka Zen’emon. He was known as honest and kind, but poverty weighed heavily on him. Hoping to improve his fortunes, he set out on foot toward Kobe to look for work.
As he crossed into the deep mountain roads, night fell around him. The forest grew dark and still, and only the sound of his own steps followed him. Then, without warning, something emerged from a grove of cedars beside the path — a gigantic arm, stretching out toward him from the trees.
The sight was so sudden and unnatural that Zen’emon collapsed in terror. After a short time he came to, scrambled to his feet, and fled down the road as fast as he could.
Not long afterward, he saw someone sitting in a roadside tree. Drawing closer, he recognized the man as Gen’ya, a childhood friend he had not seen in years. Gen’ya greeted him calmly and said he had been waiting for him. Still shaken, Zen’emon told him about the monstrous arm he had just encountered.
Gen’ya listened, then held out his own arm with a strange smile.
“This one is much bigger than yours,” he said.
Zen’emon stared in horror. Gen’ya’s arm had grown enormous, swelling until it seemed as large as the arm of the Great Buddha of Nara itself. The sight nearly made him faint again. As he watched, his friend suddenly vanished like smoke, leaving nothing behind.
Terrified, Zen’emon ran until he found shelter at a nearby house and stayed there through the night. The next day he continued on to Kobe, but though he searched, no good work came his way.
And so the story remained — a tale told in the region of how, in the mountain forests, even a familiar face may hide something uncanny, and how the deep woods can stretch ordinary things into frightening shapes.
Gallery
Sources
Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). O-ude. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010653
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