Mikoshi-nyūdō

Mikoshi-nyūdō (見越し入道 or 見越入道) is a type of bald-headed yōkai "goblin" with an ever-extending neck. In Japanese folklore and Edo period (1603–1868) kaidan "ghost story" texts, mikoshi-nyūdō will frighten people who look over the top of things such as byōbu folding screens. The name combines mikoshi (lit. "see over") "looking over the top (of a fence); anticipation; expectation" and nyūdō (lit. "enter the Way") "a (Buddhist) priest; a bonze; a tonsured monster".

By walking to the end of a road at night or a hill road, something the shape of a monk would suddenly appear, and if one looks up, it becomes larger the further one looks up. They are so big that one would look up at them, and thus are given the name "miage-nyūdō (見上げ入道, look up nyūdō^?)." Sometimes, if one just looks at them like that, one might die, but they seem to disappear by saying "mikoshita (見こした, I've seen past you^?)." They most frequently appear when walking alone on night paths, but they are also said to appear at intersections, stone bridges, and above trees.

It is said that getting flown over by a mikoshi-nyūdō results in death or getting strangled by the throat, and if one falls back due to looking up at the nyūdō, one's windpipe would get gnawed at and killed. On Iki Island off Kyushu, a mikoshi-nyūdō would make a "wara wara" sound like the swaying of bamboo, so by immediately changing, "I have seen past the mikoshi-nyūdō (見越し入道見抜いた, mikoshi-nyūdō wo minuita^?)," the nyūdō would disappear, but it is said that if one simply goes past them without saying anything, bamboo would fall resulting in death. In the Oda District, Okayama Prefecture, it is said that when one meets a mikoshi-nyūdō, it is vital to lower one's vision to the bottom of one's feet, and if one instead looks up to the head from the feet, one would be eaten and killed. Other than this, other than changing "mikoshita (seen past)" or "minuita (seen through)," there are also examples where they would disappear by mustering one's courage and smoking tobacco (Kanagawa Prefecture), or by calculating the height of the mikoshi-nyūdō by a margin (Shizuoka Prefecture), among other methods.

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