Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternative names: Five-Men Shoal, Goninzowai
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Goninzowai is the name given to the restless spirits of five blind men who perished on a lonely shoal near Uno Port. Their ghosts are said to haunt the sea and can still be heard on dark and rainy nights.
According to tradition, five wealthy blind men arrived in Bingo Province while traveling to the capital to receive the rank of Kengyō, the highest title granted to blind people. A boatman offered to take them to Osaka and they gladly boarded his vessel.
As evening approached, the boatman told them that he needed to empty water from the ship and asked them to wait on a small rocky island. Trusting him, the five men disembarked and sat peacefully listening to the sound of the waves.
But the boat never returned.
When they realized they had been abandoned, they called desperately for the boatman. No answer came. The tide slowly rose around them. Clinging to one another so that they would not be separated, the five men cried for help, but no vessel passed by. Eventually the sea swallowed them, and they drowned together.
From that time onward, fishermen avoided the area. On rainy nights voices, sobbing, and cries are said to rise from beneath the water. Strange balls of fire sometimes appear above the rocks, circling through the darkness.
The place became known as Goninzowai, meaning “Five-Men Shoal.” The name refers to the small reef that disappears beneath the sea at high tide. One story claims that a diver once descended there and found countless human bones piled among the submerged rocks.
Another version says that one of the blind men managed to wash ashore and was rescued by villagers. In gratitude and sorrow, he later traveled to Mount Kōya and erected a tomb for his four companions, praying for the peace of their souls.
Yet even today, the voices of the dead are said to remain beneath the waves, and the haunted shoal of Goninzowai is remembered as the resting place of the five blind men betrayed by the sea.
Sources
TYZ. (n.d.). Goninzowai [五人増悪]. In 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑. Retrieved June 20, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654266.html