Tonight’s yokai is one that most people are familiar with: a hitodama. This tale expands on the hitodama’s lore by claiming that they form bubbles, and smell bad enough to attract flies. It’s quite a bizarre claim, especially considering that frogs lay eggs in big piles of foam, and bad-smelling spots on the riverside are not uncommon at all—to say nothing of horseflies.

Still, Negishi’s acquaintance who told him this story goes out of his way to confirm that these are facts and in no way made up! So I guess we have to trust him…

The Hitodama

When a certain man went fishing at Kasai, a swarm of horseflies gathered around his fishing rod and gear. An old man who was nearby remarked, “Perhaps a hitodama has fallen around here, and that is why there are so many insects gathered here.”

Someone I [Negishi Yasumori] knew also went fishing at dawn, and a hitodama flew toward him and fell into the grass nearby. “What sort of thing has fallen?” he wondered. He went there to see what it was, and when he parted the grass there was something foamy that gave off a bad smell. A moment later, it turned into horseflies which scattered and flew away.

According to him, that old man’s words were no fabrication.