Just a reminder to those who are coming here for the first time: A-Yokai-A-Day ends on October 31st, but you can keep on getting new yokai in your inbox past Halloween! Just join my Kickstarter project — even if you only pledge $1! — and you can become a part of the making of The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits! Your name will go into the book as a supporter, and you’ll get to view the entire process of making the book, including all of the yokai that go in it. For the time being, all of the Kickstarter updates are public (and viewable here), but come November 1st, once the magic of Halloween ends, all of future updates will be private for backers only, and you’ll have to wait a whole year for more yokai!

Now, on to today’s A-Yokai-A-Day:

Yamajijii (山爺, やまじじい)

Wow, look at all of those dotted i’s and j’s!

Yamajijii is a strange and reclusive yokai from Kochi prefecture and other parts of the island of Shikoku. It’s name means “mountain geezer,” but an alternative name for this yokai is yamachichi, which means “mountain father.”

Yamajijii takes the form of an eldery man about 3-4 feet tall, with only one leg and one eye. Well, actually, he has two eyes, but one of them is huge and the other one is so tiny that you can barely see it, so he appears to have only one eye. His body is covered in fine gray hairs, and he is just as often seen scamping about in his hairy birthday suit as he is in old clothes or rags. He has sharp teeth and powerful jaws — his bite is said to be strong enough to crush the bones of wild boars or monkeys. Because his bite is so strong, hunters used to try to tame yamajijii and use them to drive away wolves.

Yamajijii rarely appear before humans, but their tracks are easily recognizable. They leave deep, sunken footprints about 12 inches long every 6 to 7 feet (from their hopping about on one leg). They are most well known, however, for their powerful voices. The cry of a yamajijii is so powerful it blows the leaves off of trees, shakes branches and moves rocks, reverberates through the mountains, and shakes the heavens and the earth. People who are too close to a yamajijii’s call sometimes have their eardrums burst, or even die from the impact of the shout.

Yamajijii enjoy shouting contests with each other, and one legend from Shikoku tells of a brave hunter who challenged a yamajijii to a shouting contest. The hunter fired off his rifle when he shouted, winning the contest. Later on, the yamajijii realized he had been tricked, shape-shifted into a spider, and attacked the hunter in his sleep. In some versions of the tale, the clever hunter goes to the Ise Shrine on New Year’s Eve to prepare for the shouting contest, and crafts a special holy bullet with the name of the gods of Ise inscribed upon it. This bullet had special power, and when fired it would never miss its target. Because of its strong power, whenever the hunter carried it with him he would inevitably encounter yokai; however, any time a yamajijii came near enough to threaten him, the hunter would display the bullet, and the yamajijii would flee in terror.

Yamajijii also have the power to read peoples’ minds. Another tale from Tokushima tells of a group of woodcutters who were warming themselves by a fire in a cabin. A yamajijii suddenly appeared at their cabin, and the woodcutters were terrified. They all came to the same decision — to kill the yamajijii — and one by one the yamajijii read each one of their minds to know what their plans were. Suddenly one of the logs in the fire split with a loud snap! The yamajijii thought that there was a mind he could not read among the hunters, and he quickly fled the cabin in a panic.

Despite their tricky and sometimes dangerous nature, yamajijii can also be kind to humans. A story from Kochi prefecture tells of a yamajijii who gave a sorghum seed to a farmer as a gift. The farmer sowed the seed and had a great harvest that year. In the winter, the yamajijii returned and asked for some mochi to eat. The grateful farmer gave the yamajijii as much mochi as it could eat. The next year, another great harvest followed, and again the yamajijii came back to ask for mochi. Each year, however, it was able to eat more and more, until it was able to eat 3 huge barrels full of mochi. The farmer, fearing for his livelihood, gave the yamajijii a pile of burned stones and told him they were mochi. Upon eating them, the yamajijii felt sick and hot. The farmer offered the yokai a cup of hot oil, pretending it was tea. Surprised and hurt, the yamajijii fled into the woods, but died before it could get back to its home. Afterwards, the farmer’s family fell into ruin and was never rich again.

The moral of the story is as it always is: never f*ck with a yokai.

You can read a little bit more about yamajijii at yokai.com!

Don’t forget to join my Kickstarter! | ご存じない方のためにもう少しA-Yokai－A-Dayの説明を補足しましょう。A-Yokai－A-Dayは10月31日に終わる（ハロウィーン月間）一か月間のプロジェクトです。私のKickstarter プロジェクトに参加いただけると（1ドル（約100円）から参加できます！）私の2冊目の本、The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits（逢魔時）制作に共にサポーターとして参加することができます！

参加された方々は制作過程の全てを見る事ができ、掲載予定の妖怪全てを見る事ができます。今の時点で、私のKickstarter プロジェクトのアップデートは公に公開されています（こちら)から見る事ができます）が、ハロウィーンの魔法がとけた後（11月1日以降）はBackers(サポーター）のみが見られる限定公開になります！

それでは、今日の妖怪をご紹介しましょう。

Yamajijii (山爺, やまじじい)

山爺は人里から離れて過ごす奇妙な妖怪で、高知県や他の四国エリアにいるといわれている。その他の呼び名として、山父（やまちち）とも呼ばれている。

容姿は老人のようで、背丈は３～４尺程、一本の脚に一つの目を持つ（正確には2つの目をもつが、一つはとても大きく、もう一つは小さすぎてほとんど見えないとされている）。体は灰色の体毛で覆われ、時に衣やボロ布を纏っている事もあるという。鋭い葉と強靭な顎を持ち、イノシシやサルなどの骨を噛み砕くほど頑丈だといわれている。この強さを利用して、猟師たちは山爺を手なずけて狼を追い払うのに使っていたたとも言われている。

山爺は人の前に姿を現すことはほとんどないが、山爺の歩いた跡は容易に見つける事ができる。彼らは歩くたびに6～7尺おきに4寸程の大きな足跡を残すためである。山爺はとてつもなく大きな声を出すことでも知られている。その大声は木の葉をふるい落とし、木々や岩を動かし、また山中に響き渡るその音は地面をも揺れ動かすともいわれている。山爺の近くにいた者がその声を聴いてしまったために鼓膜が破れ、ついには死に至る者までいたのだという。

山爺は大声比べを挑むことがあるという。四国に伝わる伝説によると、一人の勇敢な猟師が山爺に対決を挑み、大声と共に銃声を鳴らして山爺に打ち勝ったという話があるという。しかし、後にだまされたと気づいた山爺は、蜘蛛に化けてその猟師の家に忍び込み、寝込みを襲ったとも伝えられている。また別の話では、知恵ある猟師が大みそかの晩に伊勢神社に参り、そこで作った銃弾に菩薩の名を刻んだとされている。この銃弾には不思議な力が宿っており、発砲すると必ず命中するのだとか。また、それを携帯していると必ず妖怪に出会ってしまうとも言われている。山爺に出会った際にはこの銃弾を見せて脅すと、恐れおののいて逃げ出してしまうのだとされている。

山爺は人の心を読み取る能力があることでも知られている。徳島県に伝わる伝説によれば、木こりが焚火で暖を取っている所に山爺が現れて次々に木こりの考え（山爺を殺してしまおう）を当ててしまったという。しかし、焚き木の火が弾け飛んだその時、山爺はそれを言い当てる事ができなかった事に驚き、去っていったとのことである。

時に危険な生態であるにも関わらず、山爺は人間に対して優しい行いもするといわれている。高知県に伝わる話では、山爺がある農民にモロコシの種を与えたとされ、その農民はその年大豊作に恵まれたという。山爺が後に再び現れ餅を欲しがったので、農民は餅をたらふく食べさせてやった。しかし、翌年も、またその翌年も山爺が現れ餅をせがみ、３斗もの餅をたいらげるようになったため、家計を心配した農民は山爺に餅と偽って焼き芋を食わせた。焼き芋の熱さに苦しんだ山爺に、さらに今度は熱い油を飲ませたという。山爺は山へ逃げたが、その道中で死んでしまう。その後、その農民の家は廃れ、二度と繁栄することはなかったという。

このお話では絶対に妖怪に悪さを働いてはならないというモラルを説いているようですね。

もしこの妖怪が気にいられて、もっと日本の妖怪について知りたいと思われましたら私の本もチェックしてみてください。そして、今開催中のKickstarter プロジェクトでの第２弾の本の出版へのご協力も是非お願いいたします！