Mythology

Guanzhong Guishou

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Tradition: Chinese Mythology
Alternative Names: 棺中鬼手, Ghost Hand in the Coffin
Category: Object

The Myth

The Guanzhong Guishou, meaning “Ghost Hand in the Coffin,” is a supernatural phenomenon described in the Chinese collection Xieduo (《谐铎》). It appears as a hand reaching out from inside a coffin, emerging during the hours after midnight. The story centres on a corrupt government official whose greed persists even after death.

Even while lying dead in his coffin, the official continues to stretch out his hand to demand money. His disturbing behaviour transforms an ordinary image of the dead into a symbol of greed that cannot be satisfied, even beyond the grave. The hand represents the official’s enduring attachment to wealth and his inability to escape the corruption that defined his life.

The tale criticizes the corruption of government officials and the decay of administrative justice in Qing-era China. Through dark supernatural imagery and satire, it exposes a system in which those entrusted with authority exploit others for personal gain. The official’s posthumous demand for money suggests that corruption has become so deeply rooted that even death cannot bring it to an end.

Sources

“Guān zhōng guǐ shǒu” (棺中鬼手). Chinese Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A3%BA%E4%B8%AD%E9%AC%BC%E6%89%8B


Ittan Momen

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 一反木綿, Ittan-momen
Category: Object

The Myth

Ittan Momen is a flying cloth yokai from Takayama in Kimotsuki District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. It appears at night as a long strip of white fabric, approximately one tan in length, a traditional Japanese measurement of cloth.

The yokai flies towards unsuspecting people and wraps itself around their faces, covering their mouths and noses and suffocating them. Its seemingly ordinary appearance as a piece of cloth conceals a deadly threat, turning a familiar household material into a dangerous supernatural creature.

Sources

“Ittan Momen.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010652579.html


Bès Kotak

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Tradition: Malaysian Mythology
Alternative Names: Box Spirit
Category: Object

The Myth

Bès Kotak, meaning “box spirit,” is a supernatural being in the traditions of the Jah Hut people of Malaysia. It is described as having a box-like appearance and inhabiting muddy hollows in rivers. As a river spirit, it dwells beneath the water in places where the riverbed is soft and muddy, making it dangerous to those who enter its domain.

When someone dives into a river to catch fish, Bès Kotak may press down upon them or sit on their body, making them unnaturally heavy. The victim sinks into the mud and drowns, unable to escape the spirit’s grip. The danger becomes apparent only after the person has entered the water, leaving little opportunity to resist.

According to the account, the victim’s body floats to the surface two or three days later. This grim outcome serves as a warning about the dangers of entering the muddy hollows inhabited by Bès Kotak. The spirit embodies the deadly hazards concealed beneath seemingly ordinary river waters, punishing those who venture into its underwater domain.

Sources

“Bès Kotak.” A Book of Creatures, November 23, 2020. https://abookofcreatures.com/2020/11/23/bes-kotak/

Sterbensstein

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Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Death Stone
Category: Object

The Myth

The Sterbensstein, or Death Stone, lies at Kirchetbüel in Oberhasli, along the route to Gadmen near Meiringen in the Swiss canton of Bern. The stone rests beside a narrow, rocky gorge through which the River Aare flowed in ancient times. Its surface bears several impressions resembling marks left by human fingers, as though someone had pressed a hand into the stone.

According to local legend, a murder took place at this spot long ago. A woman who suffered a violent death desperately tried to grasp the stone, leaving the impressions of her fingers behind. The marks were said to preserve the traces of her final struggle, transforming an ordinary rock into a lasting reminder of the tragedy.

The Sterbensstein is thus associated with death and the enduring physical traces of a violent event. Beyond this brief account, the legend provides no further details about the woman, her killer, or the circumstances of the murder.

Sources

“Der Sterbensstein” (The Death Stone). SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/grimm/dersterbensstein.html

Petrified Knight

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Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Stone Knight of Waldenburg
Category: Object

The Myth

Hans von Waldenburg was an evil knight who lived in a powerful castle overlooking the small town of Waldenburg in the Basel region of Switzerland. He exploited the surrounding countryside, forcing his subjects to toil for him while he feasted day and night with his cruel companions. The people feared him so greatly that they avoided passing his castle, taking long detours to escape his attention. At the edge of town lived a poor day labourer with his wife and children. Although the father worked tirelessly, nearly everything he earned went to the knight’s enforcers, leaving his family so hungry that they had little more than watery soup to eat.

One day, a messenger arrived and ordered the labourer to go to the castle to carry stones. Having worked for the knight throughout the year, the man could endure no more. He held up his empty soup bowl and demanded that the knight provide enough food for his starving children before expecting any further labour. The messenger returned with castle servants, who dragged the man away despite his family’s desperate cries. He was thrown into the deepest dungeon, where toads and bats inhabited the darkness. As time passed and her husband failed to return, his wife watched her children grow weaker from hunger. Finally, she gathered them and struggled through the deep winter snow towards Waldenburg Castle to plead for their father’s release.

As the knight rode out with his hunting party, the woman approached him and begged him to free her husband, explaining that her children would starve without him. The knight responded with contempt, declaring that he would ride over anyone who obstructed his path as though they were filth beneath his horse. The woman then lifted her children towards him and asked him to give them even the scraps his hunting dogs refused to eat. Enraged by her appeal, the knight pointed to the fieldstones protruding from the snow and ordered her to take them as bread, promising to release the prisoner only when she had finished eating them. In despair and fury, the woman seized his horse’s bridle and cursed him: may he himself turn to stone.

The curse immediately took effect. The knight’s feet grew heavy, his whip-bearing hand sank, and his horse vanished beneath him. His body turned grey and rigid, his eyes became glassy, and a terrible groan emerged from his petrified chest. He stood transformed into a stone statue before his own castle. His terrified servants and huntsmen fled, leaving the fortress abandoned. The oppressed people of Waldenburg seized their opportunity, freed the prisoners from the dungeons, and shared the treasure they found in the castle, including with the poor labourer who was reunited with his family.

According to the legend, the stone knight still stands near the entrance to Waldenburg Castle, although centuries of wind and weather have worn away his features. On wild winter nights, when storms rage around the ruins, people are said to hear a sound emerging from the enchanted stone—a lingering reminder of the cruelty that brought about the knight’s downfall.

Sources

“Versteinerte Ritter” (Petrified Knights). SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/versteinerte_ritter.html

Bad Little Jug

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Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Naughty Little Jug
Category: Object

The Myth

Saint Teutbert was a holy hermit who had travelled from Scotland to spread Christianity. In his old age, he settled among the ruins of the former Roman city of Vindonissa, near present-day Brugg in Aargau, Switzerland. There he built a small chapel and a humble hut beside the River Aare, where he spent thirty years living a life of prayer, humility, and renunciation. One evening, as the setting sun bathed his hut in golden light, Teutbert reflected on his long life of hardship and devotion. Believing that he had overcome his sins and could no longer be tempted into wrongdoing, he imagined that he was ready to enter Heaven peacefully.

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful young maiden carrying a small earthenware jug. She confessed that her only fault was occasionally teasing people, and Teutbert gently advised her to abandon this mischief. Before leaving, she offered him the jug as a gift, explaining that it might make collecting water from the distant stream easier. Teutbert initially refused, saying that he had served others without payment and had drawn water with his bare hands for thirty years. After the maiden left, however, he found the jug outside his door and decided to accept it. He filled it with water and returned to his hut, delighted by the convenience of his new possession.

The jug soon began to misbehave. Whenever Teutbert placed it on the windowsill, it tipped over and spilled its water. He tried adjusting its position with stones, then hung it from a nail in the wall, but it still fell and flooded his hut during a violent thunderstorm. Frustrated and thirsty, he eventually forgot his morning prayers and Mass in his determination to make the jug stand upright. He gathered clay from the forest and moulded a firm base around it, but the jug shook itself loose and spilled its water once more. Enraged, Teutbert smashed it against the wall, shattering it into pieces.

At that moment, his hut blazed with heavenly light, and a voice rebuked him. Teutbert had believed that pride, anger, and every other vice had been banished from his heart, yet a troublesome little jug had been enough to make him abandon his religious duties and surrender to wrath. Overcome with remorse, the hermit fell to his knees and repented. After a long period of penance, he eventually died in blessed peace, having learned that even a lifetime of devotion cannot make a person immune to pride and anger. The legend teaches that humility must be maintained throughout life and that patience is a virtue tested most clearly by seemingly insignificant frustrations.

Sources

“Schlimme Krüglein” (Bad Little Jug). SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/allgemein/schlimme_krueglein.html

Kege

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Kemogen, Kemo Ken, 毛毛現
Category: Object

The Myth

Kege is a strange, hair-covered yokai associated with an encounter described by the Japanese manga artist and yokai researcher Shigeru Mizuki. It appears as nothing more than a lump of fur, with no visible head, legs, or tail. When Mizuki and his family visited a mountain hut on Mount Fuji, they discovered a mysterious mass of hair curled up in the bathhouse. Unable to identify it, the family became frightened and caused a commotion.

Mizuki eventually approached the strange creature and lifted it with a pair of fire tongs. To his surprise, the mass of fur was extremely light and seemed to have no body or stomach beneath its hair. The account suggests that it might have been the remains of an animal that had been eaten, leaving only its fur behind. Its true nature remains uncertain, and it is unclear whether the encounter involved an actual supernatural creature.

Kege has also been listed as a yokai associated with Shizuoka Prefecture in a modern children’s encyclopedia of Japanese supernatural beings. However, the connection appears to derive from Mizuki’s unusual encounter rather than from an established regional tradition. Beyond its peculiar appearance as a creature consisting almost entirely of hair, little is known about Kege’s origins or supernatural abilities.

Sources

“Ke-fu-ke-gen.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1079864645.html

Talking Futon

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Tottori Futon, The Futon That Talks, The Futon of God
Category: Object

The Myth

The Talking Futon is a haunted Japanese futon associated with a tragic story from Tottori. The tale tells of a travelling merchant who spends the night at a newly opened inn. As he begins to fall asleep, he hears two children speaking to each other in the darkness. They repeatedly exchange the words, “Brother, it’s cold,” and “You’re cold, aren’t you?” Believing that children from another room have entered by mistake, the merchant calls out to them. The voices briefly stop but soon return. When he lights a lantern and searches the room, he finds nobody. Eventually, he realizes that the voices are coming from the futon itself. Terrified, he gathers his belongings and flees the inn.

When another guest experiences the same phenomenon the following night, the innkeeper investigates and hears the mysterious voices himself. He traces the futon’s history through several antique shops and discovers that it once belonged to a desperately poor family. The father earned very little, while his bedridden wife and their six children struggled to pay the rent. After the father died, the mother also succumbed to illness, leaving the children to survive alone. They gradually sold their possessions until only their futon remained. During a bitter winter, the brothers huddled together beneath it, repeatedly comforting one another with the words, “Brother, it’s cold,” and “You’re cold, aren’t you?”

Their landlord eventually seized the futon because the family could no longer pay the rent and drove the children out into the freezing cold. Wearing only thin clothing, the brothers huddled together outside, but the snow and cold overcame them. Their bodies were discovered several days later, and people built a resting place for them in a nearby Kannon hall, where prayers could be offered for their souls.

Upon learning the truth, the innkeeper took the haunted futon to the temple and arranged for Buddhist sutras to be recited so that the brothers’ spirits might find peace. Afterward, the voices ceased. The story presents the Talking Futon as an object that preserves the suffering and final words of two children, transforming an ordinary household possession into a haunting reminder of poverty, cruelty, and the need to honor the dead.

Sources

“Speaking Futon.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1072878051.html

Dobukara-ja

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Dobukara Hebi, 溝から蛇, Straw Snake
Category: Object

The Myth

Dobukara-ja is a strange supernatural creature depicted in the Japanese illustrated work Bakemono Wahonso. It appears as a snake made of golden-yellow straw, resembling wheat straw in color. The creatures come in various sizes, make plenty of noise, and wrap themselves around people, but they are described as entirely harmless and not frightening.

According to the account, these straw snakes emerge from the sides of roads every year after the festival held on the first day of the sixth month. One depiction shows them appearing behind people walking with umbrellas in the rain, calling out, “Young lady, come along with me! It’s me, it’s me!” Their appearance closely resembles the straw snakes used in traditional Japanese insect-repelling processions, in which straw figures are carried as part of rituals intended to drive pests away from crops.

The creature’s name comes from the expression dobu kara hebi, meaning “a snake from a ditch.” The saying describes something unexpected appearing from an unlikely place. The Dobukara-ja embodies this idea through its sudden appearance beside the road, turning an ordinary straw object into a peculiar but harmless supernatural being.

Sources

“Dust-Covered Snake.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654364.html

Wata Hōshi

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Watahoshi, 綿ほうし, Cotton Spirit
Category: Object

The Myth

Wata Hōshi is a mysterious yokai depicted in an illustrated collection of supernatural creatures whose author and date of creation are unknown. As its name suggests, it appears as a white, cotton-like being, resembling a soft mass of cotton rather than a clearly defined animal or humanoid figure.

Little is known about the Wata Hōshi beyond its unusual appearance. It has been suggested that it might be related to the Nuppeppō, another strange Japanese yokai, but no comparable depictions or established traditions have been identified. Its origins, behaviour, and supernatural abilities therefore remain unknown.

Sources

“Wataboushi.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1025560341.html