What is the katawaguruma?
The katawaguruma is a yokai in which a woman rides an ox-cart running on a single wheel wrapped in flames. It was said to race around the village at night and to curse anyone who saw it. It is recorded in Edo-period ghost story collections such as Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari, and Toriyama Sekien drew it too.
The katawaguruma of Omi Province
A well-known tale comes from Omi Province (today’s Shiga Prefecture). On nights when the katawaguruma appeared, people shut their doors and stayed inside, but one woman peeked through a gap in the door out of curiosity. The woman on the katawaguruma said, “Rather than looking at me, look at your own child.” The woman turned around in a panic to find that the child who had been sleeping was gone. Grieving, she wrote a poem about her love for her child and posted it on the door, and the katawaguruma, moved by her feelings, returned the child, it is said.
The katawaguruma and the wanyudo
Kyoto has a similar yokai called the wanyudo, a man’s face in the center of a flaming wheel. Both have been told as warnings against peeking outside at night.
