This version frames the Hidden Zato as a blind minstrel-yokai lurking in the mountains and caverns of Tohoku and Kanto. At midnight it pounds out sounds like a foot-operated mortar or rapid rice polishing, yet the source stays unseen and household tools are said to be “borrowed.” In some tales, peeking reveals the noise coming from a neighbor’s house. Some regions call it a child-snatcher, while others give it a benevolent face as a dispenser of mochi or treasure to the honest, making them prosperous. From early modern times, the idea of hidden villages merged with a mystique around blind guilds, recasting it as an unseen people dwelling in caves. Modern folk explanations liken the racket to insect wingbeats, but as a bearer of the uncanny it endures as a spirit in the form of a zato.