The story below sounds fantastic enough, but it does not pretend to be authentic - it is just a modest attempt to acquaint the reader with our distant eastern neighbor, to show a small part of the diversity of Japanese mythology, the world of spirits and ghosts …
Bored sandal
I was visiting Torio-san, a well-known collector of good and evil spirits and ghosts in his circles. The owner, slowly sipping sake, enthusiastically narrated about his latest acquisition - Caracas Obake - an old umbrella that had come to life. Behind Torio-san's back was a katana-kake, a stand for swords, on which the daito (long sword) and seto (short sword) lay neatly. But I was more interested in tanza - a stepped cabinet standing against the wall, in one of the drawers of which someone had been fumbling for half an hour.
A minute later, the drawer slid open and a theta - a wooden sandal - fell out of it and stamped capriciously on the floor. The owner winced. I froze. Sneaker tapped out a simple melody and, humming something like: "Toyota - drive your dream", disappeared into the next room.
“This is Bake-zori,” Torio-san explained to me kindly, “he settles in old shoes that have not been looked after for a long time. Runs around the house and sings all the nonsense that he heard on TV - just trying to get attention.
While waiting for dinner, the collector invited me to take a walk in the garden. A fresh breeze was blowing, and the linen drying on the second-floor balcony swayed slightly. Suddenly one of the sheets fell off the rope and began to slowly descend at our feet. Glancing at her, Torio-san grabbed the cane more comfortably. As soon as the sheet approached us, he deftly hooked on it and threw it away.
“This is Ittan-momen,” Toriosan replied to my questioning glance, “he likes to wrap around a person and choke him.
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I shivered, but I didn't want to interrupt my walk.
Enchanted garden
We were walking unhurriedly towards Karesansui - a garden of stones - when we met a woman with a powerful mane of hair. The woman laughed out loud when she saw me.
I decided to smile politely at the lady, but my master, making a stone face, covered my mouth with his palm.
“Don't try to laugh back at her,” he said as we moved away. “This is Harionago, the ogre. Have you seen what her hair is? At each end there is a sharp hook. You will laugh and that's it. write wasted. Tear you into pieces and make a shabu-shabu stew from you.
I looked around nervously, but the woman was no longer visible. And while he turned his head in search of the cannibal, a fluffy animal rushed under my feet. I stumbled but was politely picked up by my master.
- Never mind. - he said cheerfully, - it's just Sunekosuri. His main occupation in life is to throw himself at the feet of people so that they stumble. He's no good for anything else. Just kick it harder next time.
"Well, thank God, the same lives in my house, they call him Barsik." - I thought.
At that moment, another animal climbed onto my boot. I was about to kick her into the nearby bushes with all my heart, but Torio-san raised his hand in warning.
- This is Abumi-guti. If an equestrian warrior dies, and the stirrups remain on the battlefield, then they turn into this, - Torio-san carefully removed the beast from my leg and put it on the path. - He's just looking for his master.
The walk continues
We moved on. Off the side of the path, a pretty girl was mending what looked like a fishing net. ” “ Dzere-gumo, ” Torio-san said casually. - At night turns into a spider-like monster. It gets dark, so she prepares slowly.
Soon a barbed wire fence appeared. Several trees towered beyond the fence. There was nobody and nothing else behind her.
- Dzyubokko. the owner explained to me politely. - Trees grown on the battlefields. We got used to human blood, that's why we don't let anyone near them.
"Letting go … letting go …". - came from somewhere in the forest.
“This is Ko-dama, the spirit of the old tree. For your … um … echo.
An old pond darkened not far from the blood-sucking trees.
“Don't go near the water,” Torio-san warned me, “Poki lives there, a chimera that looks like a bull. If she chooses you as a victim, she will persecute. not lagging behind until death. When it catches it - it drinks your shadow, you get sick and die.
On the way back, I heard someone's footsteps behind me. Mindful of the cannibal and other unpleasant inhabitants of the garden. I turned inquiringly to the owner. He drew me aside and politely said into the void:
- Betobeto-san, please come in.
Footsteps sounded ahead and suddenly died away. Nobody bothered us anymore.
No further than customs
When we got back to the house, four oil lanterns were already on the porch. Suddenly, from somewhere out of the darkness, another light appeared. By chance approaching the nearest lamp. the light turned into a baby, sucked the oil out of the lamp, and immediately disappeared.
- Abura-akago. When he was a man, he stole oil from holy places and sold it. Since then, he has lived like this …
The night passed quietly, except perhaps for the visit of a very long-legged citizen who licked the ceiling in my bedroom with his tongue for several hours. Torio-san apologized for a long time the next morning, explaining that it was Tenye-name and his appearance indicated that it was time to clean the ceilings.
In parting, my master presented me with a multivolume encyclopedia-bestiary, which described 11,520 types of Japanese magical creatures. But at the Tokyo customs, the bestiary was taken away from me, politely explaining that such a book does not exist, which means that I cannot take it outside the Land of the Rising Sun …
Konstantin Fedorov. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 47 2010