This year for #ayokaiaday we are looking at the bizarre occurrences which took place at the Ino residence in Miyoshi, Hiroshima, during July of 1749. These occurrences all revolve around a young boy named Ino Heitaro. His story is collected in Ino mononoke roku, a collection of scrolls, books, and legends which collectively form the narrative of a supernatural phenomenon that took place 270 years ago.

On the fifth day of Heitaro’s haunting, Gonpachi came over to visit.

The two of them discussed the strange phenomena that had been happening, when all of a sudden…

…a big stone with fingers and eyes sprouting from it appeared! It scurried into the room like a giant crab.

Gonpachi freaked out. He drew his sword to attack the crab-stone. Of course, against a creature made of stone his sword could do nothing at all. Heitaro, meanwhile, was unfazed.

By the following morning, the creature had turned back into an ordinary stone. Heitaro discovered it lying on the floor of his kitchen. It was the pickle stone from his neighbor’s tsukemono barrel.