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 day eighteen, Heitaro went into his room to discover that all of the tatami were missing…
On a second glance, however, he realized that they weren’t missing, but were actually all strung up and hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Classic prank!
That night, a jingling sound was heard from the store room. When the door was opened up, a bishop’s staff jumped out and began to fly around the house, jingling and jangling as it went.
The tatami sounds like a high-school prank. You know toilet paper, and all that. Do you mean a “shakujō,” a monk’s staff?
Correct, the staff in question is a shakujo. 🙂 Apparently they’re called khakkhara in English, but I’d never heard that word before.