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 twelfth day, Heitaro noticed that all of the ofuda he had placed on his walls to protect his house from evil had been defaced.

Not a good sign…

That night, as he lay in bed trying to sleep, an enormous toad leaped out of his closet. The toad had a rope tied around its waist. It jumped up onto Heitaro’s belly and glared at him.

Heitaro recognized the rope. He figured that his laundry basket must have been transformed into the toad. He was tired and not in the mood for such nonsense. He gripped the toad’s rope tight and went back to sleep.

When Heitaro woke up in the next morning, the frog had turned back into his laundry basket.