What is oitekebori?
Oitekebori (“the leave-it moat”) is one of the ghost stories known as the “Seven Wonders of Honjo,” told in Honjo in Edo (today’s Sumida, Tokyo). Long ago, the Kinshibori moat in Honjo was a place where fish bit well. But when anglers happily set off home with a big catch, an eerie voice came from the water of the moat: “Leave it, leave it.”
Frightened, they ran home, and when they looked in their creels, every fish they had caught was gone, it is said. Other tales say that those who ignored the voice and tried to take the fish home were led astray or even lost their lives.
Whose voice was it?
The owner of the “leave it” voice has been said to be a kappa living in the moat or a shapeshifting tanuki. Today a kappa statue inspired by the legend stands in Kinshibori Park near JR Kinshicho Station.
The origin of “oitekebori”
The Japanese expressions oitekebori and oitekibori, meaning to be left behind by one’s companions, are said to come from this ghost story’s “oiteke-bori.” The name of a ghost story lives on as an everyday word.
The other Seven Wonders of Honjo include “tanuki-bayashi,” festival music heard from nowhere when no one is there; “okuri-chochin,” a lantern light that follows you on a night road; and “kataha no ashi,” reeds with leaves on only one side. They were all loved by the people of Edo.
