What is umibozu?
Umibozu is a giant yokai that suddenly appears on the sea at night. It looks like an enormous, pitch-black shaven head, rising out of the water to block a ship’s path or overturn it. It goes by different names in different regions, such as umi-hoshi and umi-nyudo, and legends of it are found along coasts all over Japan.
Legends of umibozu
Umibozu is often said to appear suddenly on a calm, windless sea. Sailors handed down the advice that if you meet one, you must not speak to it and should let it pass without showing fear. It was also said that those who went fishing on days when going to sea was forbidden would meet an umibozu, so the legend may have helped enforce fishing taboos. Stories of a voice asking “Lend me a ladle!”, then using the ladle to scoop water into the boat and sink it, are often mixed with those of a similar yokai, the funayurei (ship ghost); the remedy was to hand over a ladle with its bottom knocked out.
What was umibozu really?
Proposed explanations include a large sea turtle, whale or seal raising its head above the surface, or misidentified mirages and big waves. It is a sea yokai born of sailors’ fears, a kind of Japanese counterpart to the kraken.
