Mikoshi-nyudo

Mikoshi-nyudo ("look-up priest") is a priest-form entity on night roads whose height grows the further one looks up at it. At first it looks like an ordinary monk; the more one looks up, the taller it grows, and only when the head bends back does the entity strike. The defining countermeasure is to say "Mikoshita" or "Mikoshi-nyudo, mikoshita" (I have looked you over) before its head reaches its peak, which makes it vanish. Cases are widely distributed in the mountains of Tokushima, Kochi, and Ehime in Shikoku, the Koshin highlands of Kanto, and the bamboo groves of the Kinki region; local names include "Miage-nyudo," "Shidaidaka," and "Nobiagari." Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, in no maki (Anei 5, 1776) depicts "Mikoshi" with text giving the verbal countermeasure. Sawaki Sushi's Hyakkai Zukan (Kyoho era) carries an analogous image. Yanagita Kunio's Yokai Dangi (1956), Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (2005), and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database systematize the tradition.