Hitotsume-kozo

Hitotsume-kozo ("one-eyed boy") is a child-form entity with a single large eye on the forehead, shaved head, and a long tongue. The figure is closely tied to the Kanto folk calendar of Koto-yoka, the eighth day of the twelfth and second months, when Hitotsume-kozo visits homes to record misdeeds and bring illness. Households hang a high me-kago (eye-shaped basket) at the eaves; daunted by the many eyes, the entity withdraws. Distribution covers Musashi, Sagami, Kazusa, and Shimousa (modern Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Chiba), with related cases in Niigata and Fukushima. Yanagita Kunio's Hitotsume-kozo Sonota (1934) is the classic synthesis, linking the figure with the one-eyed smithing deity Ame-no-mahitotsu-no-kami of the Kogo Shui. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database systematize the tradition.