Yosuzume (Kochi)

Yosuzume ("night sparrow") is a night-mountain bird entity told widely in western Japan, including Kochi. On late mountain paths and passes the figure circles a person's head with high "chi-chi-chi-chi" calls; those who see it are said to suffer eye trouble, or to be marked as targets for the okuri-okami ("sending wolf") that follows behind. In the representative pattern, small birds gather and chirp over a traveler's head at night; if one walks on undisturbed, no harm comes, but turning to swat them brings the okuri-okami or eye illness. Related cases are told in the mountains of Kochi, Tokushima, and Ehime in Shikoku, and the Kii Range; alternate names include "Yakan-dori" (Kii) and "Yosuzume" (Shikoku). Yanagita Kunio's Yokai Dangi, Katsurai Kazuo's Tosa folklore, and modern regional collections of Shikoku and Kii record the tradition. 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.