Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 布団被せ, ふとんかぶせ, Futon Covering
Category: Object
The Myth
Futon Kabuse is a little-known yokai from Sakushima, an island in Mikawa Bay, Japan. Its name refers to the act of covering someone with a futon or bedding. According to the brief account recorded in Kunio Yanagita’s edited collection Studies of Coastal Village Life (1949), the creature suddenly approaches its victim, covers them, and causes them to suffocate.
Very little else is known about Futon Kabuse. The surviving description was collected by folklorist Kiyoko Segawa, and no further detailed accounts of the creature have been identified in the cited material. Its appearance, origins, and the circumstances in which it attacks remain unknown.
In Japanese Ghost Stories: Yokai (1981), Enosuke Konno quoted the account under a section about supernatural beings that attack the head. He associated Futon Kabuse with Nobusuma, a creature known for covering people’s faces and suffocating them. This suggests that Futon Kabuse may belong to the same general category of suffocating yokai, although the available evidence is too limited to establish a more precise relationship.
Sources
“Futonkabu.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1072816670.html