Yōkai

Oshoné

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Folklore (Yatsuka-chō, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture)
Alternate Names: Osshine (variant pronunciation)
Category: Yōkai / Water Spirit

The Myth

On a bitterly cold day in Yatsuka-chō, a fisherman waited alone in his boat at sea, watching his nets and enduring the freezing wind. As the cold deepened, he began striking a bell-like instrument to keep himself awake. Suddenly, he noticed what appeared to be a large mountain directly in front of him, looming where open water should have been.

Believing the mountain to be some illusion or object washed into the sea, the fisherman rowed toward his shore shack and pulled on the anchor rope to steady himself. Finding nothing amiss, he returned to his work. Though uneasy, he closed his eyes and continued fishing.

After some time, he opened his eyes and saw three children gathered around a bonfire burning on bamboo. The children had no hands and no feet, yet they moved about the fire as if untroubled. Realizing what he was seeing, the fisherman thought of an old tale he had heard and understood that these beings were Oshoné, a strange yōkai known from local stories.

Acting quickly, the fisherman threw shushumi leaves into the fire. As the leaves crackled and snapped loudly, Oshoné was startled. In confusion and fear, the creature scattered, fleeing with a lantern and vanishing into the pine trees of the nearby mountain.

After that night, the fisherman never saw Oshoné again, but the story remained along the waters of Yatsuka-chō, told as a strange encounter with a yōkai that appeared by the sea, took the form of limbless children, and vanished when frightened by sudden noise and flame.

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  • Nietzschean Deep Dive
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Moku Musume

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology (Gunma–Nagano, Usui Pass)
Alternate Names: Shumoku Musume
Category: Yōkai / Mountain Dweller / Shark

The Myth

Moku Musume, also known as Shumoku Musume, is a yōkai known from monster paintings and traditional karuta cards. Her appearance is immediately recognizable and unlike that of any ordinary being. Her head is shaped like a shumoku, a T-shaped Buddhist mallet used to strike bells in temples. On each end of this T-shaped head are eyes, giving her vision to both sides, and her face resembles that of a hammerhead shark.

She is depicted as a female figure whose body is otherwise human, with the strange hammer-shaped head defining her supernatural nature. Because of this form, she is sometimes associated visually with Buddhist ritual objects, though her exact behavior is not described in surviving sources.

One karuta card explicitly names her as the “Shumoku Musume of Usui Pass,” suggesting that she was believed to appear at Usui Pass, the mountainous route connecting present-day Gunma and Nagano Prefectures. Travelers passing through the pass would have regarded the area as dangerous and uncanny, and the presence of Moku Musume was tied to this liminal mountain road.

Beyond her appearance and place-name association, little is recorded of her actions. She endures primarily as a visual yōkai, preserved through paintings and cards, her strange hammer-shaped head marking her as a being that belongs neither fully to the human world nor to the ordinary realm of spirits.

Interpretive Lenses

Religious Readings
  • Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
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  • Nietzschean Deep Dive
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  • How to Invite The Spirit

Me-te

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Tradition / Region: Japan
Alternate Names: Te no Me (“Eye of the Hand”)
Category: Yōkai

The Myth

Me-te is a yōkai known from writings attributed to Sato Arifumi. It is described as a blind creature that wanders through open fields, moving as though it cannot see the world around it.

Despite its blindness, Me-te is extremely dangerous. People are warned never to mock or make light of it. Those who laugh at Me-te or assume it is helpless are said to be punished, for the yōkai will suddenly attack and suck out their eyeballs.

Me-te is also known by the name Te no Me, meaning “Eye of the Hand,” a name that reflects its strange and unsettling nature. In illustrations, it appears in a form similar to figures shown in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, though it is depicted without wrinkles on the face, and its empty eye sockets are shown through deep shading.

Though little is recorded about its origin or fate, Me-te is remembered as a wandering field yōkai whose apparent weakness conceals a brutal and sudden threat.

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Nurikabe

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Tradition / Region: Japan (Edo-period yōkai scrolls)
Alternate Names: —
Category: Yōkai / Lion / Dog

The Myth

In illustrated yōkai scrolls from Japan, a creature known as the Nurikabe appears in a form unlike the better-known invisible wall of later folklore. This Nurikabe is a tangible beast with four legs and a powerful body. Its most striking feature is its enormous face, which bears three eyes that shine with an unnatural blue light. It has large, drooping ears like those of an elephant and two black tusks that curve outward. Its body is painted white, giving it a ghostly and imposing appearance. Some describe it as resembling a dog or a lion, though it does not fully match any known animal.

In the scrolls where it appears, the Nurikabe is shown near crashing waves. Behind it emerge figures such as Umi-otoko, a human seaman, and Umi-bōzu, a fearsome sea spirit. This setting places the Nurikabe at the boundary between land and sea, standing where the human world meets the supernatural. It does not act directly against the figures shown, but its presence dominates the scene, suggesting a powerful being that guards or obstructs passage.

The scroll depicting this Nurikabe is dated to the early nineteenth century. No clear written legend accompanies it, and its precise origin is unknown. It is uncertain whether this beast represents a specific local tradition or whether it was created by the artist as a yōkai form inspired by existing beliefs. Its connection to the later Nurikabe known for blocking travelers’ paths is not clearly stated in the original material.

As it appears in the scroll, the Nurikabe remains an enigmatic creature: a massive, watchful being standing firm amid waves and spirits, neither clearly hostile nor welcoming, marking a place where movement forward is uncertain and dangerous.

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