What is the hyosube?
The hyosube is a yokai related to the kappa, told of in Saga Prefecture and elsewhere in the Kyushu region. It is also called hyosubo and is sometimes written with characters meaning “soldier-master group.” Toriyama Sekien drew it in his Edo-period yokai books under the name “hyausube.”
Features of the hyosube
The hyosube is small and covered in hair, and its name is said to come from its cry, “hyo hyo.” It loves eggplants and was said to sneak into eggplant fields and ravage them. People feared that anyone who saw a hyosube would fall ill with a fever. Another saying warns that if a hyosube smiles at you and you smile back, you will die.
Links to the water gods
Legends of the hyosube remain at Shiomi Shrine in Takeo, Saga Prefecture, where the family that served the shrine is said to have ruled over the hyosube. Like the kappa, it is thought to be a transformed river or water god.
