Japanese Mythology

Yamiyo no Ushi-oni

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: 闇夜の牛鬼
Category: Cow

The Myth

The Yamiyo no Ushi-oni is a strange yokai described in the Tamakushige. It has the head of a bull and the body of a human, with a tiger’s hide wrapped around its waist. Its face shines with an intense light that radiates outward, illuminating the darkness around it. In the tale, the creature is also able to perch high in the branches of a tree despite its large and powerful form.

The story takes place during the time when Ukita Naoie ruled Bizen Province. Kuroshima Sakon Nyūdō Munetsuna was a warrior from Kuroshima in Sanuki and was said to be a descendant of Tawara no Tōta Hidesato. Through circumstances of marriage and inheritance, Munetsuna came to succeed the household of Hatano and entered the service of Hoshiga Tōnai, the lord of Shūsō Castle in Bizen.

One night, Munetsuna was invited to the home of another retainer of Hoshiga Tōnai, Dokura Kamanosuke, where the two became absorbed in playing go. By the time they finished, it was already deep into the night. Around the hour of Ushi Mitsu, Munetsuna set out for home accompanied by his attendant, Mimizawa Riemon.

As they traveled along the road, they suddenly saw an extraordinarily bright light in the otherwise completely dark night. It was so brilliant that they could clearly see people’s faces and even the crests on their clothing. There was no fire nearby, and it was far too early for sunrise.

Wondering what could possibly be producing such light, Munetsuna looked around. About fifty ken ahead stood the residence of a samurai named Motoki Shichirō. From within its gate grew a large paulownia tree, and high among its branches was something that appeared to be a calf of about three years old—a large and powerful bull.

Its eyes shone like mirrors, while intense light also poured from its two raised horns, illuminating the surrounding area.

The creature’s head pointed toward the east and its tail toward the west. Despite its enormous and powerful appearance, it was crouched among the branches of the paulownia, resting upon one of the thinnest branches with the lightness of a dog or a butterfly.

Munetsuna, being a fearless man, was not frightened. Instead, he approached the gate and declared that this must be the Ushi-oni he had heard about. He considered himself fortunate to have encountered such a strange monster and decided that he would see exactly what it was.

The monster suddenly leapt toward him.

Munetsuna, who was highly skilled in martial arts, quickly grappled with the creature and forced it to the ground. He then drove his sword through its body.

At that very moment, the Ushi-oni vanished without leaving a trace. The brilliant light disappeared with it, and the surroundings immediately returned to darkness.

Munetsuna then turned around and discovered that his attendant, Riemon, had seen the light and had fainted from terror. Munetsuna gave him medicine and cared for him until he regained consciousness, after which the two continued back to their residence.

The strange events were connected to the household of Motoki Shichirō, whose property the Ushi-oni had appeared beside. Motoki had recently become deeply interested in a form of magic known as the Izuna technique. He had attempted to learn and practice the art himself, but had failed to complete it and eventually abandoned his efforts.

Afterward, strange supernatural events were said to occur continually within the Motoki household. On one occasion, a light appeared to walk through the air. On another, a severed human arm fell into the middle of a gathering. Strange noises caused the house to shake, while objects were mysteriously hurled through the air in phenomena associated with tengu.

These supernatural disturbances frightened the women and children of the household.

After Munetsuna defeated the Ushi-oni, however, the strange phenomena gradually ceased. The disturbances that had plagued the Motoki household fell silent, and before long the supernatural activity disappeared altogether.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “闇夜の牛鬼 [やみのよ‐うしおに] (Yami no Yo Ushi-oni).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). June 30, 2018.
https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1071487382.html

Waira

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Waira
Category: Cow

The Myth

The Waira is a rare and reclusive yōkai, few of which have ever been encountered. It is an ugly beast with a large body resembling that of a cow, but with four long limbs, each ending in a single sharp claw. Male Waira are mottled in earthy brown colors, while females are red.

Waira live deep in the mountains, particularly around heavily wooded temples and shrines. They are associated with Otoroshi and are believed to guard temples and shrines against wicked people.

Their powerful claws also serve another purpose. Waira use them to dig through the earth and uncover small animals hidden beneath the ground. Moles, mice, rabbits, and other small creatures make up their diet.

The Waira is said to have a strange origin. Because of its coloring and the mountainous, wooded environments in which it is found, it is believed that the creature may be a transformed yōkai born from an ordinary toad after reaching an advanced age.

The Waira is also speculated to have some connection with the Otoroshi. The two creatures share the same kind of habitat and are often encountered together, leading to the belief that they may be related in some way.

The origin of the name Waira is uncertain. Since the name is not written using kanji, there are few clues to its original meaning. The most commonly accepted explanation is that Waira is a regional corruption of kowai, meaning scary. This interpretation has also been taken as further support for a possible connection between the Waira and the Otoroshi.

Sources

“Waira.” Yokai.com. Accessed August 30, 2026. https://yokai.com/waira/?srsltid=AfmBOorxkYQbS-rokMmMloUPhpiJKdZaztDthwaYnRMY1FNsUxVqjJNG

Ushi-onna

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Cow Woman
Category: Cow

The Myth

The Ushi-onna is a frightening yokai said to have appeared around Mount Rokko in Hyogo Prefecture. It is described as a woman with the head of a cow and the body of a human, usually wearing a red kimono. Encountering her was believed to bring misfortune or cause an accident.

One version of the legend tells of a girl born before the Second World War with the head of a cow and the body of a human. She was supposedly born in a certain mansion or at a place connected with the slaughtering of cattle. Because of her strange appearance, she was imprisoned inside a room and kept hidden from the outside world.

When the air raids devastated the Ashiya and Nishinomiya areas, the buildings where she had been confined were destroyed. According to the rumor, the cow-woman escaped from the ruins and disappeared into the surrounding area.

Other stories placed her around Mount Kabuto in Nishinomiya. In one account, a person encountered what appeared to be a cow wearing a red kimono, with blood dripping from its mouth. Another rumor claimed that after the Great Kobe Air Raid, a woman wearing a kimono and possessing the face of a cow was seen eating animal carcasses among the ruins of a shrine on Mount Kabuto.

Further rumors connected the creature to a house that had dealt in beef cattle before the war. According to this version, a calf was born with part of its body possessing an abnormal human-like form. The creature was locked inside a room, but after the air raids destroyed the surrounding area, it escaped.

The stories were later associated with the motif of Sakyo Komatsu’s 1968 short story Kudan no Haha, which was set in Ashiya. The exact relationship between the story and the earlier rumors is uncertain, but the two traditions share the disturbing image of a human-cow hybrid appearing in the Ashiya and Nishinomiya region.

The legend eventually became particularly associated with Washirinji Temple in Nishinomiya. From around the late 1970s onward, young people began visiting the temple at night as a test of courage, hoping to encounter the cow-woman.

A rumor spread that the Ushi-onna would appear if someone walked around the shrine on the temple grounds three times. As more people began visiting at night and causing disturbances, the temple attempted to stop them by putting up a sign claiming that, unfortunately, the cow-woman had moved away.

Thus the Ushi-onna became a modern Japanese urban legend: a cow-headed woman in a red kimono, associated with wartime destruction, abandoned ruins, blood, and nighttime encounters around the mountains of Hyogo.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “牛女 [うしおんな] (Ushi-onna).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). July 25, 2021. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1078437909.html

Ushi-Momo

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Ushi-Momo
Category: Cow

The Myth

Ushi-Momo is the name of a monster said to exist in the Inshu Tottori region of Japan.

The available source only states that a monster with the name Ushi-Momo is known in the region. No further description of its appearance, behavior, origin, or story is provided.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “牛モーモー [うし-] (Ushi-Mōmō).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). December 29, 2009.
https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010652677.html

Ushi-Kubi

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: The Cow’s Head
Category: Cow

The Myth

Ushi-Kubi, meaning “Cow’s Head,” is a terrifying Japanese ghost story or urban legend concerning a tale that is said to be so frightening that it must never be told.

According to the legend, anyone who hears the story of the Cow’s Head will be overcome by terror, lose their mind, or even die. Because of this, the story itself is never supposed to be told. Only its title has supposedly survived, while the actual contents remain unknown.

The story is sometimes said to have been passed down since the Edo period. It is also said that the tale was simply too terrifying to be written down, and therefore survived only through oral transmission.

The mystery surrounding Ushi-Kubi is part of the horror. The frightening idea is not necessarily that there is a particular monster or event within the story, but that somewhere in the world there is supposedly a ghost story so horrifying that merely hearing it can kill the listener. The actual existence of such a story, however, is itself uncertain.

Because the contents are unknown, people have repeatedly invented their own explanations of what the Cow’s Head story might contain. On Japanese internet message boards, various theories and fabricated versions have circulated, including stories connecting it with cannibalism during the Tenpō famine.

In 1960, the writer Sakyo Komatsu published a novel titled The Cow’s Head. The story concerns a protagonist who attempts to discover the contents of the terrifying ghost story known as “The Cow’s Head.” Komatsu later stated that his story was based on a rumor that had already circulated within the mystery community. If this account is accurate, stories about the famous but unsubstantiated Cow’s Head legend were already circulating before 1960.

Later collections of Japanese supernatural folklore have treated Ushi-Kubi as an example of a “monster that must not be spoken of.” Similar legends involve supernatural stories, names, or subjects that supposedly cause death or disaster simply by being spoken about.

A literary work titled The Cow’s Head was also published by Ishizumi Haruhiro in the 1926 issue of Bungei Ichiba. Ishizumi reportedly heard the story from his father. However, whether this 1926 story is actually connected to the Cow’s Head legend known today remains unclear.

Thus, the defining feature of Ushi-Kubi is precisely that its terrifying story is never revealed. The legend survives through the claim that the story exists, while its supposed contents remain unknown.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “牛の首 [うし‐くび] (Ushi-kubi).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). April 19, 2021. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1078437883.html

Ushigozen

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Cow Lady
Category: Cow

The Myth

Ushigozen is a cow-like monster associated with an ancient incident at Asakusa. It is described as a monstrous creature resembling a cow-demon.

In 1251, during the third year of the Kenchō era, a strange creature resembling a cow appeared near Asakusa in Musashi Province. It suddenly ran toward Sensō-ji Temple, where approximately fifty monks had gathered in the temple’s refectory.

As the creature appeared, twenty-four of the monks immediately fell ill and became unable to rise from their beds. Seven others died instantly.

Another account tells that, around the same period, a monstrous creature resembling a cow demon emerged from the Asakusa River. It ran about wildly before suddenly disappearing by jumping into a shrine on the opposite bank.

The shrine was Ushigozen Shrine, now known as Ushijima Shrine. According to the tradition, when the creature entered the shrine, it dropped a sacred treasure known as the cow-jewel onto the altar.

Ushigozen Shrine itself was traditionally founded during the Jōgan era, between 859 and 879. The monk Jikaku Daishi Ennin is said to have received an oracle from an old man who was an incarnation of Susanoo-no-Mikoto. The figure commanded him to build a shrine and promised that, whenever unrest threatened the land, he would protect it by appearing in a form capable of subduing demons, wearing the head of a bull around his neck.

Because of this tradition, the creature that attacked Sensō-ji has sometimes been interpreted as the fierce spirit, or aramitama, of Ushigozen. Another interpretation identifies it as an incarnation of Susanoo-no-Mikoto, with the attack possibly reflecting a religious conflict between the traditions associated with Sensō-ji and Ushigozen Shrine.

The creature that appeared at Asakusa is regarded as one of the earliest recorded examples of the Japanese ox-demon, or ushioni. In later retellings, the name Ushigozen itself came to be treated as the name of the supernatural creature.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “牛の首 [うし‐くび] (Ushi-kubi).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). April 19, 2021.

Ushi-Fufu

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: –
Category: Cow

The Myth

Ushi-Fufu is a pair of supernatural beings with human heads and cow-like bodies. Both figures have two horns growing from their heads and hooves split into two parts.

The male has a black body with a white abdomen, while the female has a red body. The male is also depicted with exposed genitals.

The source provided does not give any further story or legend concerning Ushi-Fufu beyond their depiction as a pair of cow-like beings associated with Hell.

Sources

“獣；ケモノ，夫婦；フウフ，畜生道；チクショウドウ (Kemono; Fūfu; Chikushōdō).” Kaii/Yōkai Image Database, International Research Center for Japanese Studies. 2006. https://www.nichibun.ac.jp/cgi-bin/YoukaiGazou/card.cgi?identifier=U426_nichibunken_0058_0007_0000

Ushi-Bakemono

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Ushi-Bakemono
Category: Cow

The Myth

Ushi-Bakemono is a yokai with elements of social satire, introduced in Hyakki Hirugyo, from Keigetsu Omachi’s Eiri Kunwa, an illustrated collection of moral tales published in 1916. It is listed as the 35th of the 41 yokai in the work.

Ushi-Bakemono is depicted with a human body and the head of a large black ox. At first glance, its appearance resembles Shennong, the ancient Chinese deity, but unlike Shennong, the creature is an ox monster that provides no benefit to humanity.

The ox monster is said to doubt everything around it, including gods, morality, the state, and life itself. It wanders aimlessly through a fog, questioning these aspects of existence.

The horns on its head represent jealousy and insidious cunning. The creature is said to attempt to push down anyone and everyone in order to advance itself.

Although such a being may call itself a modern person, the tale presents it as something less than human: an ox monster wandering through the world, driven by doubt, jealousy, and cunning.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “牛の化物 [うし‐ばけもの] (Ushi-bakemono).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). July 25, 2021. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1078437905.html

Unmushi

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Sea Cow
Category: Cow

The Myth

Unmushi is a yokai from the area around Kagoshima Bay in Tarumizu City, Kagoshima Prefecture. It takes the form of a black cow with horns and is said to emerge from the sea with a terrifying roar.

The Unmushi appears only on the 27th day after Obon. Because of the creature’s appearance on that day, people traditionally avoided going out to sea.

Sources

Takahashi, Toshihiro. “海牛 [うんむし] (Unmushi).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). July 9, 2011. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654024.html

Twelve-Horned Calf

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Tradition: Japanese mythology
Alternative Names: Twelve-Horned Calf
Category: Cow

The Myth

A calf with twelve horns was said to have been born in Tamba Province, Japan. The calf was black and had six horns growing from each side of its head.

Sources

Akisato, Okina, and Nishimura Chūwa. “牛；ウシ，動物；ドウブツ，角；ツノ (Ushi; Animal; Horns).” Kaii/Yōkai Image Database, International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.nichibun.ac.jp/cgi-bin/YoukaiGazou/card.cgi?identifier=U426_nichibunken_0446_0013_0000