Explore Japan by Prefecture
We list 4 places in Gunma where yokai, cryptids and legends are told or sighted, and 3 related encyclopedia entries.
Please note Trespassing on private property or restricted areas is prohibited by law. Please be considerate of local residents.
Positions on the map are a rough guide to the area where a legend or sighting is set. Most pins are placed at representative points of a municipality or prefecture (outside Japan, a city position rounded to about 10 km, or the country), not at the exact place.
Municipality points: Geolonia address data (CC BY 4.0), based on the Address Base Registry (Digital Agency of Japan) / Country points: Natural Earth
The legend of a magical tea kettle at Morinji Temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, that never ran out of hot water however much was drawn from it. The monk who used it turned out to be a tanuki. It later spread as the folktale of a tanuki that turned into a tea kettle and walked a tightrope.
A tanuki (raccoon dog) yokai that tricks people and transforms into people and things. Legends of famous great tanuki abound in Shikoku and Sado, and it is beloved through folktales like Bunbuku Chagama and stories of tanuki drumming on their bellies.
A legend that just before the fall of the Edo shogunate, its huge war chest was secretly buried somewhere. The theory that the shogunate's finance commissioner Oguri Kozukenosuke hid it on Mount Akagi in Gunma Prefecture is famous, and large TV excavations drew attention, but nothing has been found.
