Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Wolf
The Myth
In Kotonan Town of Kagawa Prefecture, charcoal burners working deep in the mountains lived in simple huts far from villages. At night they relieved themselves in buckets kept as makeshift toilets beside the huts.
Yet many mornings the buckets were found strangely empty.
People said that in the dark hours a creature known as the Shōben-no- came creeping out of the forest. Silent and unseen, it approached the huts and drank the urine left in the containers. No one ever clearly saw it, but its presence was taken for certain, for the buckets never remained full overnight.
Some believed the being was not a yokai at all, but a wolf in disguise. Wolves, it was said, craved salt, and the taste of urine drew them from the mountains. Across the region stories spread of wolves licking urine barrels or creeping near homes in search of the salty liquid.
To keep the creature away, some people moved their toilets indoors or placed them in courtyards. Others left salt outside in hopes of satisfying the animal before it came closer to the house.
In some places it was said that wolves which drank urine became dangerous and might attack people. In others, they were believed to do so only when sick, seeking the liquid as a cure. One tale tells that when a wolf repeatedly came to drink from a household’s bucket, the family prayed to the deity Gion-san, and after the prayers the visits ceased.
Thus the Shōben-no- remained a shadow of the mountains — perhaps a yokai, perhaps a wolf — known only by the emptied buckets it left behind.
Gallery
Sources
Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Shoben-no. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654291.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
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