Kani-bozu (Miyazaki)

Kani-bozu is a giant-crab yokai of temples and waters. The figure is said to disguise itself in priestly form and challenge a monk at a remote temple to a Zen dialogue at night, or to lie in deep pools and pinch passers-by with its claws. Cognate cases are recorded in Miyazaki and across Kyushu, as well as in the Kofu basin of Yamanashi. The typical narrative places a travelling priest at a desolate mountain temple, where a great onyudo appears at midnight to pose obscure riddles; when the priest answers with a gatha or sutra verse, the figure is exposed as a giant crab and slain. Where the tradition is bound to a temple engi, the crab is buried in a "kani-zuka" mound in the precinct; the kani-bozu tradition of Choizen-ji (former Chozen-ji) in Kofu (Yamanashi) is the most famous example. Early-modern miscellany and picture-scroll traditions, and the engi (origin records) of early-modern temples preserve cognate cases. Yanagita Kunio's Yokai Dangi (1956) refers to the kani-bozu narrative; Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (2005) and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database compile regional cases. Densities are recorded in southern Kyushu, the Kofu basin, and the Hokuriku coast. Adjacent temple impostor-priest figures include kumo-bozu, tanuki-bozu, and kitsune-bozu.