Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Hīhī Saru, ヒーヒ猿
Category: Monkey

The Myth

The Hīhīzaru is a mysterious supernatural creature from the Mitsu District of Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Little is known about its appearance or origins, and its reputation rests primarily on its disturbing influence over the sick.

According to local accounts, the Hīhīzaru attaches itself to ill people and causes them to become insensitive. Those afflicted by the creature lose their normal sensitivity, although the precise nature and extent of this condition are not described. Beyond this association with illness and diminished sensation, little information about the creature has survived.

Sources

“Hee-hi Monkey.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1050617498.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Saru Kaachi, Saru-ga-Achi, 猿があち
Category: Monkey

The Myth

Saru-ga-Achi is a monstrous ape depicted in an account from Ōya Mountain in Shimotsuke Province, Japan. It lurks in a rocky cave near a waterfall, where it attacks horses by biting into their legs. Bones from its previous victims litter the ground around its lair. The name appears to derive from a regional expression meaning something like a strange or monstrous monkey, although another account interprets it as referring to a supernatural creature called an achi.

According to this later interpretation, monkeys grow into hihi as they age. These enormous ape-like monsters stand twice as tall as humans, have long lips and dishevelled hair, run at tremendous speed, and devour people. After several hundred more years, a hihi may die and subsequently return to life, becoming an achi. Such beings possess extraordinary supernatural powers, can communicate with Heaven, transform the forces of yin and yang, and summon clouds and rain.

Around 1199–1201, during the reign of Emperor Tsuchimikado, the warrior Inage Saburō Shigenari of Sagami Province reportedly encountered the Saru-ga-Achi while hunting on Ōya Mountain. By then, the creature’s formerly brown fur had turned yellowish white, and its back was bent. It appeared exhausted and close to death, as though waiting for its final moments. What eventually became of the ancient monster remains unknown.

Sources

“Saru-ga-achi.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1049058496.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Kaku, Yamako, Kuronbō, 覚
Category: Monkey

The Myth

The Satori is an intelligent, ape-like humanoid said to inhabit the remote mountains of central Japan, particularly Gifu. Roughly the size of a human, it resembles an enlarged version of the monkeys native to the region. These strange beings lurk along mountain paths and near isolated huts, where they encounter travelers venturing far from civilization.

Satori are infamous for their uncanny ability to read human thoughts. They can anticipate what a person is about to say and speak those thoughts aloud before the words leave their mouth, making them exceptionally difficult to deceive or escape. They are also dangerous predators, sometimes attacking and eating solitary travelers. In some accounts, they abduct lone women and carry them into the mountains. Despite their apparent intelligence, Satori are easily frightened by unexpected events. A sudden blow or an object striking them can send them fleeing in terror. According to one tradition, a person can escape a Satori by completely emptying their mind, leaving the creature with no thoughts to read and causing it to lose interest.

The name Satori means “enlightenment” in the Buddhist sense, reflecting the creature’s extraordinary ability to perceive the thoughts of others. This connection also appears in the traditional method of escaping one: by emptying the mind of distracting thoughts, a person becomes unreadable to the creature. Satori have also been associated with the Yamako, ape-like beings described in older accounts, and with the Yamabiko, a monkey-like yokai known for imitating human voices. Their shared connection to unusual mental or vocal abilities has led to speculation that these creatures developed from related traditions. Some interpretations suggest that Satori may represent ancient mountain deities transformed into frightening supernatural beings.

Sources

“Satori.” Yokai.com. https://yokai.com/satori/

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Yamajiji, Satorikai, 山地乳
Category: Monkey

The Myth

The Yamachichi is a monkey-like yokai that inhabits the secluded mountains of northeastern Japan. It has a pointed mouth and peculiar, sucking lips suited to its unusual way of feeding. Yamachichi are believed to originate from bats: a long-lived bat transforms into a Nobusuma, which eventually becomes a Yamachichi after many more years. Because of its resemblance to the Satori, a supernatural being associated with the mountains, the Yamachichi is sometimes called Satorikai.

These creatures descend from the mountains late at night and enter houses where people are sleeping. They approach their victims and use their pointed lips to suck the breath from their mouths, draining away their life force. Once the victim’s breath has been stolen, the Yamachichi taps them on the chest before fleeing into the darkness. A person whose breath is taken in this way is said to die the following day.

However, the Yamachichi’s power can be reversed if its attack is interrupted. If the sleeping person awakens or another witness catches the creature stealing someone’s breath, the Yamachichi immediately flees. Rather than dying, the intended victim is said to have their lifespan greatly extended. The creature is known primarily from an Edo-period collection of supernatural tales, and little else is known about its origins beyond its association with remote mountain regions.

Sources

“Yamachichi.” Yokai.com. https://yokai.com/yamachichi/

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Saru no Mukosama, Saru no Nyōbō, Monkey Bridegroom, 猿婿入り
Category: Monkey

The Myth

Sarumuko, or the Monkey Bridegroom, is a traditional Japanese folktale found in many regions of Japan. It belongs to the widespread tradition of stories about marriages between humans and supernatural or animal beings. The tale usually begins when a farmer promises his daughter to a monkey in exchange for its help with agricultural work. In some versions, the farmer desperately needs water for his rice fields during a drought. A monkey overhears him wishing that someone would irrigate the fields in return for a daughter’s hand in marriage, and promptly brings water to the fields. In other versions, the monkey plants seeds, weeds the fields, or performs other difficult tasks. Bound by his promise, the farmer must offer one of his daughters to the monkey. The elder daughters refuse, but the youngest agrees to marry it and goes to live in the mountains.

In the eastern Japanese version, the bride is eventually permitted to visit her family during the Girls’ Festival in the third month. Before leaving, she prepares rice cakes and asks her monkey husband to carry a heavy mortar on his back. Along the way, she also asks him to retrieve a branch of mountain cherry blossoms growing beside a deep pool. As the monkey reaches for the branch, the weight of the mortar pulls him into the water, where he drowns. Before dying, he laments that his own death matters less to him than the sorrow his wife will feel. The daughter, however, secretly wishes for the mortar to remain above the monkey and the monkey beneath it, then flees home. Other versions substitute wisteria flowers or persimmons for the cherry blossoms. Some even describe the monkey dressing formally in traditional robes before descending from the mountains to claim his bride.

In western Japan, the daughter often defeats the monkey on the very day of their wedding. She has him carry a large water jar intended as part of her marriage possessions. When they reach a river, she deliberately drops her hairpin or mirror into the water, prompting the monkey to climb in and retrieve it. Water fills the jar on his back, making it impossible for him to escape, and he eventually drowns. In both regional versions, the youngest daughter uses her intelligence to overcome a dangerous marriage imposed upon her and return safely to her family. The story shares themes with the medieval Japanese tale Fujibukuro no Sōshi, in which a farmer’s promise leads to a daughter being taken by a monkey, only for her to be rescued by a skilled archer and his dogs.

Sources

“Sarumuko.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1063422280.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Sarutsura Kozo, さるつら小僧, Monkey-Faced Boy
Category: Monkey

The Myth

Sarutsura Kozō is a mysterious yokai depicted in a type of supernatural creature card game produced during Japan’s Edo period. As its name suggests, it takes the form of a young boy with a monkey-like face. Its image appeared on a picture card accompanied by the phrase “Sarutsura Kozō of Saruhashi,” linking the creature to a place called Saruhashi.

The name Saruhashi probably refers to the bridge of that name spanning the Katsura River, also known as the Sagami River. However, it is uncertain whether Sarutsura Kozō was ever the subject of an actual local legend. The creature is primarily known through its depiction on the old yokai card, which later inspired the manga artist Shigeru Mizuki to create an illustration of another yokai called Kawazaru, or River Monkey.

Sources

“Kozou.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1049652018.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 船越村の奇怪, The Strange Incident of Funakoshi Village
Category: Monkey

The Myth

In June 1716, a farmer named Sagouemon lived with his wife and three children in Funakoshi Village, in Musashi Province. Night after night, strange lights appeared outside their home, accompanied by a terrifying presence that caused their youngest daughter, a two-year-old girl, to scream in fear. Whenever the light from outside approached the house, another glowing light emerged from the inner rooms and confronted it near the window. While the two lights clashed, the child would stop crying, and the disturbance would end. Despite prayers, purification rituals, and attempts to discover the cause, the family could not rid themselves of the phenomenon.

During a thorough cleaning of the house, Sagouemon’s wife discovered an old, soot-blackened paper talisman stuck to a wall in the inner room. Without recognizing its significance, she discarded it with the rubbish. That night, the outside light returned, smashed through the bamboo lattice, and entered the house. The protective light did not appear. The creature seized the little girl and tried to carry her away, but Sagouemon struck it with a sickle. Although he felt the blow land, the creature escaped with the child. The following morning, villagers followed a trail of blood from the house into the nearby hills, where they discovered a large, ape-like beast hiding in a small cave. They beat it to death, discovering that it was an aged monkey on the verge of becoming a hihi, a fearsome Japanese ape-like monster. The missing girl was never found.

When the village officials investigated, they also asked about the second light, which had ceased appearing after the talisman was discarded. The family and villagers searched the drainage ditch where the rubbish had been thrown and recovered an old, blackened Kumano Gohō talisman, a sacred protective charm revered by Sagouemon’s ancestors. They came to believe that the talisman had housed a divine presence that had protected the family by opposing the beast. From then on, the villagers treated the charm with great reverence, and the mysterious disturbances never returned.

Sources

“Funakoshi Monkey.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1046235949.html