Hitotsuya (Kochi)

Hitotsuya ("solitary house") is the entity attached to an isolated house deep in the mountains, or the house itself, with an oni-baba (demon-crone) hostess who murders her guests for their goods. The typical pattern: a traveler caught by nightfall lodges in a lone mountain house, the aged hostess shows suspicious behavior in the night, and the traveler narrowly escapes by flight or divine aid. The Adachigahara version of Fukushima is famous through the Noh play Kurozuka and Chikamatsu Monzaemon's puppet play Oshu Adachigahara; at the oral level, "Hitotsuya" and "Hitotsuya no Baba" tales cover mountain regions nationwide, including Kochi in Shikoku. Yanagita Kunio's Yokai Dangi (1956) refers to such cases. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database organize the tradition; the figure is positioned next to but distinct from yamauba.