No concrete oral traditions survive in old records. In picture scrolls it appears simply as a monster of the mountains, with no notes on behavior, harm, or benefit. Later children’s books and encyclopedias spread claims such as it eating moles or attacking people, but no reliable primary sources confirm these and they are often considered inventions. In a separate lineage of scrolls it is renamed “Ushi-kawazu” and said to dwell in ponds, but other sources do not corroborate this.