What is the satori?
The satori is a yokai said to appear in the mountains and read people’s minds. It is described as a creature like a monkey or a large man, covered in long black hair. Legends from the mountains of Hida and Mino (today’s Gifu Prefecture) are famous, and the Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien drew it in his yokai books.
Legends of the mind-reading yokai
A well-known satori story tells of a woodcutter tending a fire in a mountain hut when a satori appears. When he thinks “How frightening,” the satori says “You thought how frightening”; when he thinks “I’ll catch it,” it says “You thought you’d catch me,” guessing every thought. At a loss, the woodcutter goes on working without thinking, when a log in the fire pops and a piece strikes the satori in the face. “Humans do things you can’t foresee,” the startled satori says, and runs away.
The lesson of the satori
The story, in which even the mind-reading satori could not foresee what people do without thinking or what happens by chance, has been told as a lesson in the strength of an empty, thought-free mind. Today the satori appears in manga and games as the model for characters who can read minds.
