Like yesterday’s yokai, today’s yokai is a magical animal with shape-changing abilities. These kinds of animal yokai, including foxes, cats, snakes, wolves, spiders, dogs, and badgers, are called hengeyokai. I did a small illustration of today’s yokai last year on one of the Hyakki Yako panels, but it’s such a cute one that I thought it was worth expanding. So here it is:

Kawauso

Kawauso is the Japanese word for a river otter. Like other hengeyokai, the kawauso is sometimes kind and playful, sometimes mischievous, and sometimes dangerous. One of the most common depictions of the kawauso in Japan is as a young boy, or in otter form but dressed as a young boy. Apparently they like to shape shift into cute, poor children in beggar’s clothes and sneak into sake store to try to buy liquor. When asked its name or where it came from, the yokai just replies in grunts or squeaks — that’s how you know it’s really a kawauso and not a boy.

While they’re usually nonviolent, in other stories, kawauso have been known to dress up in ladies’ clothing and hide in a castle moat. When young men come to court the ladies in the castle, the kawauso lures the unsuspecting gentlemen over to “her” and then “she” eats them up. So keep that in mind and be careful of strange ladies hanging around moats…

Kawauso

Matted prints will be available on my Etsy store pretty soon, so please check back again later this week. If you’re interested in buying the original, please send me an email via my contact form. | 「今日の妖怪シリーズ」今日は「かわうそ」です。

昨日の「むじな」に続いて化ける妖怪です。日本ではおなじみの化ける妖怪（狐･猫･蛇･狼･蜘蛛･犬･かわうそﾅﾄﾞ）は変化妖怪と呼ばれています。

「かわうそ」は、昨日の「むじな」同様にかわいかったりやさしかったりもしますが、いたずら好きで時に危ない妖怪です。幼い童に化けて酒屋に行って酒を買いにくる話がよく知られています。

「かわうそ」にまつわる話はあまり怖くないのですが、一つ怖いお話もあります。城のお堀に住むカワウソが若い美女に化け、近づいてきた男を食い殺したという話です。

皆さん、もしお堀に若い美女が立っていたら気をつけましょうね。

かわうそ

「かわうそ」の絵は私のＥｔｓｙストアでもうすぐ購入が可能になります。オリジナルの「かわうそ」の購入がご希望でしたら、こちらのお問い合わせフォームからご依頼をおねがいします。世界に1枚のオリジナルですので、売れてしまう場合もございますのでご了承をお願いいたします。