Tradition / Region: Japanese mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Mountain dweller, Yokai
The Myth
In the village of Narabayashi in Buzen Province, a strange terror began to visit the people. Night after night, the peasants’ horses and cattle vanished without a trace. No broken fences, no blood, no tracks—only empty stalls and fear.
At first the villagers whispered of thieves. Then of wolves. But the disappearances continued, and dread settled over the village.
Only one farmer, a man named Fujisuke, had been spared—until the night his turn came.
As darkness fell, Fujisuke noticed a sharp, fishy odor drifting through the air. It grew stronger and stronger, thick and suffocating. Then, from the shadows, a monstrous shape entered his stable.
Before his eyes, the creature seized his cow and swallowed it whole.
Frozen in terror, Fujisuke could do nothing but watch. When at last he found the strength to move, he fled and ran to the village headman, breathless and pale, and told what he had seen.
At dawn, the villagers gathered for a mountain hunt. Armed with bamboo spears and driven by fear and anger, they followed the lingering stench into the hills.
Deep in the mountains, they found a cavern from which the same foul, fish-like odor poured. Inside, crouched in the darkness, was the monster.
It was enormous—six feet tall, with a mouth so vast it measured more than a meter across. Its presence filled the cave like a nightmare given flesh.
The men attacked together, thrusting their bamboo spears again and again until the beast collapsed.
When it lay dead, an old villager stepped forward, peered at the slain creature, and said quietly:
“This is the Shishikori.”
And so the name of the devourer of cattle was spoken, and the terror of Narabayashi came to an end.
Gallery
Sources
TYZ-Yokai Blog contributors. (n.d.). 獅子狩 (Shishikori). In TYZ-Yokai Blog, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654244.html
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