Yaroka-mizu (Aichi)

Yaroka-mizu ("shall-I-let-it-go water") is a voice entity of the Kiso River basin near Nagoya in Aichi that calls down a flood. On a rain-heavy night the river rises; from upstream a man's voice repeats "Yarou ka, yarou ka" ("Shall I let it go?"); if anyone answers "Send it," a great volume of water sweeps down and engulfs the villages along the river. If no one answers, no flood comes; the figure is told as a taboo against speaking back to the voice. Related cases are spread along the Kiso and Nagara River basins. The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari, scroll one "Yaroka-mizu" (Tenpo 12, 1841), with text by Momoyama Jin and pictures by Takehara Shunsen, is the textual source. Modern folklorists, including Yanagita Kunio, discussed it as a taboo tale. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) treats it as a discrete entry, and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database also records it. Interpretations of the voice as a river deity, a dragon god, or a ghost vary by area.