👹 Shiritai Yōkai Shōkai! The Confusing Otoroshi

Welcome to the first of a new series of posts called Shiritai Yōkai Shōkai, where we spotlight the different yōkai found in Hamayumishi! Today we are looking at the Otoroshi… or is that the Osoroshi because it is おそろしい, terrifying? Maybe Odoroshi for its どろどろ bedraggled hair? Not much is known about this yōkai, even what it’s really called!

In the Edo Period, there was a folklorist named 菅江 真澄 Sugae Masumi. He traveled far and wide and documented local folklore and yōkai from all around Japan. While touring the northern Tōhoku region, he fell in love with Akita and made his home there. Thus, many yōkai are attributed to Akita even if their original locations may have been elsewhere. Thus even though the Otoroshi is generally known to be from Akita, there are many similar legends with slight variations found throughout Tōhoku and the Kinki (Kansai) regions.

Additionally, Sugae didn’t exactly have the best penmanship, leading to another theory for its name: Otoroku. When he wrote the name of this particular creature, historians can’t tell if the final し shi might actually be a く ku!

In Hamayumishi, the Otoroshi is quite difficult to defeat since it drops down quickly from above. Judging by its expression, even the Otoroshi looks like even it is terrified that this is all happening, and keeps darting out of harm’s way. It turns out even yōkai are cowards.

The Otoroshi has not been added to the public build of Hamayumishi yet, but you can still check out the demo on itch and Steam!