What is the nozuchi?
The nozuchi is a yokai said to live in the mountains and fields. It is described as a mallet-shaped snake with a thick body and no clear distinction between head and tail, or as a creature with no eyes or nose and only a big mouth. It is also known as one of the old names of the cryptid tsuchinoko.
The nozuchi in classical texts
The name “nozuchi” is old, said to go back to Nozuchi no Kami, another name for Kaya no Hime, the goddess of the fields in the Kojiki. The Kamakura-period Buddhist tale collection Shasekishu tells of a monk who neglected the Buddhist path and was reborn after death as a nozuchi with no eyes, nose, hands or feet. The Edo-period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue describes it as the “nozuchi snake,” and Toriyama Sekien drew it as a yokai lurking in the fields.
The nozuchi rolling down slopes
The nozuchi is said to roll down from the top of a mountain slope to bite people’s legs or swallow them whole. It goes down slopes quickly but up them slowly, so a saying advises fleeing uphill if you meet one. Such legends are thought to have fed into the image of the tsuchinoko, which jumps and rolls as it moves.
