A toilet-dwelling apparition recorded in the Edo-period miscellany Shifugoroku (Four Unspoken Tales). It haunts household privies, extending a shaggy, pitch-black hand to stroke a person’s rear and perform other pranks. In Toita Village of Noto, it is said a villager cut off the black hand with a sword. Days later, a yokai disguised as a monk came to reclaim the severed hand; its true form was an uncanny giant nearly nine shaku tall. An archetypal tale of latrine-bound hauntings.
Folklore & Legends
In the Keichō era, at the home of Kasamatsu Jingobee, his wife felt her backside stroked each time she used the privy. Suspecting foxes or raccoon dogs, Jingobee entered with a drawn sword. A hair-covered black hand appeared, and he sliced it off. A few days later, three monks visited to ask for the hand; upon receiving it, one transformed into a towering figure nearly nine shaku high, cried “My hand!” and all three vanished. Later, on his way home, Jingobee was suddenly lifted by something that loomed over him; when he came to, the very sword that had cut the Black Hand was gone.
An image organized from the account “Kurote-giri” in volume six of Shifugoroku. The Black Hand dwells in household privies, extending only a black, shaggy hand to harry people. Its true form can disguise itself and once, in the guise of a monk, retrieved its severed hand. When it shed the disguise it was said to stand nearly nine shaku tall, possessed great strength, and displayed a strange power that enveloped a person. It combines motifs common in early modern toilet ghost tales—“the hand,” “a smothering presence,” and “a transforming monk.” Though often confused with fox or raccoon-dog tricks, the text explicitly names it “Kurote.” Visual depictions are not fixed, and Mizuki Shigeru’s portrayal is thought to reflect other traditions, so features like three fingers or simian traits should not be generalized.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
said to be drawn to the defilement of human dwellings
Abilities
lurking in privies and revealing only a handshapeshifting into a human monkretrieving and regenerating severed partsoverwhelming strength with a wrapping or wind-like effect
Weaknesses
unknown, records note its hand was severed by a sword but not fatally
Habitat
household privies, folklore areas around Noto
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