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Ochiyobon

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Yokai, Mountain dweller

The Myth

Long ago, in the mountains of Ushū, there lived powerful monsters known as the Mouryō. Among them was a young Mouryō who had pledged his future to Ochiyobon, the daughter of a neighboring monster. Refusing to submit to the wishes of their elders, the two lovers fled together to the distant mountains of Hakone, hoping to live freely, far from interference.

They settled in a ruined house deep in the mountains and asked a nearby monster named Shirodashi, who lived in a cave, to help them move. At first Shirodashi seemed friendly, but in truth he was a drunken, scheming brute. He began visiting the couple daily, demanding food and money, and soon turned his attention to Ochiyobon. He harassed her with lewd remarks and tried to force himself upon her, laughing when she resisted.

One day, Shirodashi separated Ochiyobon from her husband through trickery. He then lied to the young Mouryō, claiming that he and Ochiyobon had long been lovers and that she had begged to be taken as his wife. The timid Mouryō, terrified of scandal and humiliation, weakly agreed to surrender her. Shirodashi carried off Ochiyobon’s belongings and told her she now belonged to him.

Ochiyobon wept and protested, insisting on her innocence and her love for her husband, but Shirodashi ignored her cries. Their quarrel drew the attention of Momonjii, the master of the cave, who chased Shirodashi away and sheltered Ochiyobon. Momonjii tried to reconcile the lovers, but the young Mouryō, obsessed with appearances, refused to take her back. Brokenhearted and abandoned, Ochiyobon despaired of life itself, but Momonjii promised to care for her, and she remained with him.

Among monsters, beauty is not judged as it is among humans. Though others found Ochiyobon’s face unbearable, Momonjii was captivated by her, and in time he sought her affection. Grateful for his kindness, Ochiyobon accepted him, and the two grew close.

Some time later, turmoil erupted over a political marriage between a monster clan and the fox spirits. A gang of raccoon dogs stole the treasured White Fox Jewel, and it was discovered that Shirodashi had hidden it while aiding them. Monsters and foxes stormed his lair to reclaim it.

Before they could act, a woman’s voice called from within. Ochiyobon emerged, holding the White Fox Jewel in one hand and a bloodstained knife in the other. At her feet she cast the severed head of Shirodashi. She declared that she had been falsely accused, abandoned, and disgraced through his lies. To clear her name, she had lured him, reclaimed the jewel, and killed him as proof that no affair had ever existed.

With Shirodashi dead and the truth revealed, Ochiyobon’s honor was restored. Her tale ended not as one of helpless betrayal, but of resolve and vengeance, remembered as the story of a monster woman who reclaimed her dignity through blood and truth.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). オチョボン (Ochiyobon). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1071896675.html

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Yashawaka

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Ghost, Mountain dweller

The Myth

At a mountain temple, there once lived a young page named Yashawaka. He was an ordinary boy until, around the age of fourteen or fifteen, something about him began to change. He stopped eating and drinking altogether, yet he did not grow weak. Instead, he became increasingly withdrawn. Each night, once darkness fell, he would quietly leave the temple grounds and vanish into the surrounding hills.

As weeks passed, his appearance became unsettling. His face turned deathly pale, his cheekbones jutted sharply from his skin, and his features grew strange and hollow. The monks whispered among themselves, uneasy at his nightly wanderings and unnatural endurance. Suspecting something dreadful, one of them decided to follow him in secret.

Late one night, the monk watched as Yashawaka crept into the temple cemetery. There, beneath the moonlight, he dug into fresh graves with frantic strength. When the earth was pulled away, he uncovered the newly dead—and began to eat the corpses. The watcher fled in horror and reported what he had seen.

The head priest ordered the entire temple to seize Yashawaka. Monks rushed into the night to capture him, but he moved with terrifying speed. He ran as though he could fly, leaping across the ground, then climbing into the treetops where no one could follow. From branch to branch he vanished into the mountains, swallowed by the forest.

Yashawaka was never seen again. Some say he became a creature of the wild, neither living nor dead, while others believe he still wanders the mountains, driven by hunger and darkness, a warning of what happens when the boundary between the human and the monstrous is crossed.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). ヤシャワカ (Yashawaka). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1057282474.html

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Kani Musume

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Crab Girl
Category: Mountain dweller, Crab, Yokai

The Myth

In the late eighteenth century, during the lively days of Edo, crowds gathered in the Asakusa district to see strange and curious spectacles. Among them was a young girl known as the Kani Musume—the Crab Girl. She was said to have only two fingers on each hand, and this unusual trait earned her fame. People came not because she performed any special skill, but simply to look upon her rarity, and her name became well known among the curiosities of Asakusa.

As the years passed and fashions changed, the popularity of such shows faded. In later tales, the Crab Girl’s story took on a darker, more fantastical turn. She was said to have been gathered up by a demon woman who had withdrawn from human society and fled into the remote mountains of Tamba. This demon girl, bitter over her own failures and humiliation, surrounded herself with others like the Crab Girl—along with a Cat Girl, a Heron Girl, a Bear Girl, and a Snake Girl.

Together, these strange women would sit and speak ill of human women, mocking their beauty, their manners, and their lives. The demon girl dreamed of returning to the human world as a terrifying monster, one that would inspire fear instead of ridicule. But when she saw a beautiful human woman named Omiwa, whose face twisted into something truly dreadful from jealousy alone, the demon girl was overcome with fear. Realizing that human emotions could be more frightening than any monster’s form, she fled back into the mountains, abandoning her ambition.

Thus, the Kani Musume remained in legend as a figure caught between spectacle and myth—first a curiosity of the city, later a companion of outcasts and half-monsters—her story reflecting how fascination, cruelty, and fear can transform ordinary lives into something strange and unsettling.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). カニ娘 (Kani Musume). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1052020047.html

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Yamabora

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Mountain dweller, Yokai

The Myth

On the island of Hachijōjima, where steep mountains rise sharply from the sea, people once spoke in hushed voices of something called Yamabora. It was not a creature that could be clearly seen, nor one that left tracks or shadows. Its presence was known by a single, unmistakable sign: an unbearable stench that struck without warning in the depths of the mountains.

In earlier times, Yamabora was said to dwell in the forests of Higashiyama. Those who wandered too far into the slopes would suddenly be overwhelmed by a smell so foul that it turned the stomach and robbed the breath. Panic would seize them, and they would flee downhill without ever glimpsing what caused it. Some said Yamabora was a monster, others that it was a spirit of the mountain itself, angered by human intrusion.

By the early nineteenth century, Yamabora had already become rare, spoken of more as memory than menace. Yet during the Tenpō era, the old fear returned. An exile named Kinzo Bunyamura was traveling deep in the Higashiyama mountains when the air around him suddenly thickened with a stench so intense that he could not endure it. Believing himself to be in the presence of Yamabora, he ran down the mountain in terror, certain that had he lingered even a moment longer, something dreadful would have happened.

Those who claimed encounters with Yamabora all told the same thing. There was no shape, no sound, no movement—only the smell. It came suddenly, filled the forest, and vanished just as mysteriously. Because of this, Yamabora was remembered not as a beast with claws or fangs, but as an unseen warning, a sign that some parts of the mountain were not meant to be entered, and that the land itself could drive humans away without ever revealing its face.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). ヤマボラ (Yamabora). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1042311445.html

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Ku-Nyōbō

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Mei-kuwanu Nyōbō (“The Wife Who Does Not Eat”)
Category: Yōkai, shapeshifter, Mountain dweller

The Myth

There was once a man so stingy that he constantly complained about the cost of food. Again and again he declared that what he truly wanted was a wife who did not eat at all. One day, as if answering his foolish wish, a beautiful young woman appeared before him and said calmly, “I do not eat. Please take me as your wife.” Delighted, the man married her at once.

The woman was everything she promised. She worked tirelessly from morning until night and never once sat down to eat a meal. Yet despite this, something strange began to happen. The rice chest in the house grew emptier by the day. No matter how carefully the man measured it, the rice continued to vanish. Suspicion crept into his mind.

One morning, the man pretended to leave for work but instead hid himself in the attic, peering down to spy on his wife. When he was certain she believed herself alone, the woman set a great pot on the fire and cooked an enormous amount of rice. She shaped the rice into ball after ball, far more than any one person could eat. Then she did something horrifying. Letting her hair fall loose, she opened a hidden opening at the top of her head and began stuffing the rice balls into it, one after another. At that moment, the man understood that his wife was no human being, but a monster in disguise.

That evening, shaken with fear, the man confronted her and dismissed her from the house. Realizing her secret had been discovered, the woman did not protest. Instead, she asked for a large bucket as the price of her departure. The man agreed, eager only to see her gone. But once the bucket was ready, the wife suddenly seized him, shoved him inside, and carried the bucket upon her back as she fled into the mountains, revealing her monstrous strength.

Along the way, the man managed to escape and hid himself among thick patches of mugwort and iris. When the wife pursued him, she stopped short, unable to come near those plants. Snarling in frustration, she turned back and vanished into the wilds.

From that time on, people said that mugwort and iris could ward off such creatures, and they began hanging them from their eaves during the May Festival. As for the wife who claimed she did not eat, her true form was never agreed upon. Some said she was a mountain hag, others a demon, a snake, a spider, a frog, or even a crow. But all versions agreed on one thing: a wife who eats nothing is not to be trusted.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). クニョボウ (Ku-Nyōbō). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1029983868.html

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Ying Miao

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Inmao, Inmaho
Category: Ghost, Mountain dweller, Yokai

The Myth

In the villages of the Amami Islands, where moonlight turns the paths silver and the forests seem to breathe, people once spoke of a quiet apparition known as Ying Miao. It was not counted among the dangerous spirits, nor was it invoked to frighten children. Instead, it was remembered as something strange and fleeting, a presence that appeared and vanished without leaving harm behind.

One night, under a bright moon, a traveler was returning to Hanatomi from Iyomo along a lonely road. As he walked, he heard a peculiar sound ahead of him—soft yet heavy, like large ears clapping together. From the opposite direction came a creature unlike any animal he knew. It looked neither like a goat nor like a dog, yet carried something of both in its form.

Ying Miao stopped directly in front of the man. Its ears continued to clap slowly as it raised its head and stared at his face in silence. The two stood there for a moment that felt longer than it was, the road empty and the night utterly still. Then, without a sound or gesture, the creature turned and walked on past him, disappearing down the path.

The man continued home, uneasy but unharmed. When he looked back after a few steps, Ying Miao was gone, as if it had never been there at all. No illness followed, no misfortune, no lingering curse. Nothing happened—except the memory.

Unlike many spirits of the Amami Islands, which were feared for stealing souls or killing those they touched or licked, Ying Miao was said to do nothing at all. It appeared, looked, and vanished. Because of this, people came to believe it was not a bringer of death, but a wandering ghost—one that crossed paths with the living without malice, leaving behind only a quiet question in the moonlit road.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). Ying Miao. In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1018147293.html

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Orabi Souke

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Yama Orabi, Orabi Soute
Category: Mountain dweller, Yokai

The Myth

In the mountains of northern Nagasaki and the rugged highlands of northwestern Saga, travelers once spoke in hushed voices of a being known as Orabi Souke. It was not a creature that announced itself by shape or shadow, but by sound.

Those who wandered deep into the hills would sometimes hear shouting echo through the trees—angry, sharp cries that did not belong to any human voice. The sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, bouncing from slope to slope, drawing the listener deeper into the forest. Hunters and woodcutters learned to stop where they stood when the shouting began, for Orabi Souke was said to be listening.

If a person encountered the source of the voice and struck at it—whether with blade, stick, or stone—the mountain itself seemed to answer. Orabi Souke would strike back, not always with visible force, but through sudden terror, confusion, or misfortune. Men who attacked it were said to lose their way, stumble into ravines, or flee the mountain shaken and wounded without knowing how.

In nearby regions, the same presence was known by another name: Yama Orabi, the Shouting One of the Mountain. Though often confused with yamabiko—the echo spirit—Orabi Souke was considered something different. The echo merely repeated a voice. Orabi Souke answered it.

The meaning of its name was never fully understood. “Orabu” meant to shout, but what “souke” signified was unknown, as if the creature itself had no clear form or origin—only a voice and a will. Because of this, people believed Orabi Souke was not meant to be challenged or chased away. It was part of the mountain’s temper, a presence that demanded respect.

So travelers learned a simple rule: when the mountains shout back, lower your voice, still your hand, and leave the forest as you found it.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). Orabi Souke. In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654451.html

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Heinzelmännchen

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Tradition / Region: German Mythology
Alternate Names: Heizemännche, Heizemänncher, Hänneschen
Category: House dweller, Gnome

The Myth

Long ago in the city of Cologne, the people lived with remarkable ease. Bakers slept late, tailors lounged on benches, and craftsmen moved through their days unburdened by toil. This was because, every night while the city slept, the Heinzelmännchen came.

They were small, naked little men who appeared silently after darkness fell. No one ever saw them arrive. They crept into kitchens, workshops, and storerooms, baking bread, washing clothes, mending tools, sweeping floors, and finishing every task left undone. By dawn, all work was complete. When the citizens awoke, they found their chores finished as if by magic.

So long as no one tried to see them, the Heinzelmännchen remained faithful helpers. But curiosity is hard to restrain.

One night, a tailor’s wife grew determined to discover who truly labored in her workshop. Before going to bed, she scattered dried peas across the floor and hid herself nearby. When the Heinzelmännchen arrived and began their work, they slipped on the peas, tumbled over one another, and fell in a noisy heap.

Realizing they had been spied upon and mocked, the Heinzelmännchen were furious. Without a word, they gathered themselves and vanished into the night.

They never returned.

From that day forward, the people of Cologne were forced to rise early and work with their own hands. Bread had to be baked, floors scrubbed, and tools repaired by human effort alone. And so the city learned a lasting lesson: unseen help must be respected, and some mysteries are better left undiscovered.

To this day, the story is told at Christmastime, when quiet houses and winter nights still seem to whisper of the little men who once worked while all Cologne slept.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Heinzelmännchen. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (German), from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinzelm%C3%A4nnchen

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O-Uni

by

Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: (none recorded)
Category: Mountain dweller, Yokai

The Myth

High in the mountains, where paths fade into mist and the forests grow thick and silent, there appears a strange being known as O-uni. It does not announce itself with cries or violence. Instead, it is encountered suddenly, standing where no one expects it to be, its form half-lost among trees and shadow.

O-uni is covered entirely in dense, shaggy hair, like tangled fibers clinging to a living shape. Those who see it cannot clearly make out its face or limbs. It seems neither beast nor human, but something older, shaped by the mountains themselves. It does not pursue travelers, nor does it flee. It simply stands, watching, as if bound to the place where it appears.

No tale tells of O-uni attacking anyone, yet its presence is unsettling. People who encounter it feel an instinctive unease, as though they have wandered into a space that does not belong to humans. Afterward, they struggle to describe what they saw, disagreeing even with themselves about its size or posture, as if the creature resists being remembered clearly.

O-uni is known only through ancient picture scrolls filled with monsters, where it appears without explanation, nameless except for the title written beside it. In those images, it is shown in the mountains, silent and furred, no story attached—only the certainty that such a thing exists.

And so O-uni remains a being of quiet dread: not a creature of action, but of presence, lingering in the high places where threadlike mist wraps the peaks and the world feels unfinished.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). 大鬼 (Ō-uni). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654245

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Ishigani

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Stone Crab; Crab Stone; Finger-Eyed Stone Crab
Category: Mountain dweller, Crab

The Myth

The tale of Ishigani begins not with a named monster, but with a series of unsettling events that followed a reckless act. In Bingo Province, a sixteen-year-old samurai youth named Inō Heitarō took part in a test of courage on Mount Hikuma together with his neighbor, Mitsui Gonpachi. After that night, strange disturbances began to plague Heitarō’s home, as if something unseen had followed him back from the mountain.

On the night of July fifth, while Heitarō and Gonpachi were talking inside the house, a heavy stone suddenly burst into the room. It was no ordinary rock. Before their eyes, it sprouted thick, finger-like legs and began to crawl across the floor with disturbing speed. From its surface glared eyes like those of a crab, fixed upon the young men with hostile intent. The creature’s movement was vigorous and purposeful, as though the stone itself had been given will and malice.

Gonpachi drew his sword, ready to strike the crawling stone, but Heitarō stopped him. Whether from fear, restraint, or a sense that violence would only worsen matters, no blow was struck. The stone creature continued its threatening display before vanishing, leaving the house shaken and the boys helpless.

When morning came, the terror seemed to have passed. In the kitchen lay a large stone, inert and ordinary once more. It was recognized as a familiar object from the neighborhood—either a car-stopper stone or a heavy stone used for pressing pickles. Whatever force had animated it during the night had withdrawn, leaving behind only the mundane shell of what had briefly become something monstrous.

The creature itself was never given a fixed name in the original account. Later retellings and illustrations began to call it Ishigani, likening it to a crab formed of stone. In picture scrolls and books, it is often shown as a rock covered in many eyes, scuttling forward on thick, finger-like limbs; in other depictions, it has only two bulging eyes, making its crab-like nature more pronounced.

Ishigani stands as a reminder of a common theme in Japanese folklore: that ordinary objects can be temporarily possessed or transformed by unseen forces. What appears lifeless by day may awaken by night, not as a true beast, but as a manifestation of fear, consequence, or something disturbed beyond human understanding.

Gallery

Sources

TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). 石蟹 (Ishigani). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1052490476.html

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