Bōzu-tanuki (坊主狸) - [Yokai | Tanuki]

Bōzu-danuki - (坊主狸) - [Yokai | Tanuki] - Monk-Tanuki /shaven head tanuki

• About this yokai: A bake-tanuki said to once haunt a bridge that used to be in  Tokushima prefecture known as "Bōzu-bashi" (坊主橋) or “Monk Bridge”. Legend has it that whenever someone crossed Bōzu-Bashi they would suddenly find that their heads had been shaved clean like a Buddhist monk’s! This was said to be a prank of the Bōzu-Danuki who lived in the nearby thicket. - Much later, in 2015 the bridge was dismantled and a jizo statue was erected to keep the tanuki in check.

• History: One of several short Tanuki folk-legends as recorded in 1927's Awano Tanuki no hanashi 阿波の狸の話 - ["Tanuki Tales of Awa" 1927] 

"Bozu-Bashi" was a real bridge in Handa town (now Tsurugi) Mima District, Tokushima Prefecture and was located near a Jinguji temple (神宮寺, a combination Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine) because of that, the bridge was given the nickname of 'bozu-bridge' as monks with shaven heads could often be seen crossing it. - This seems to have lead to a rumour where anyone who crossed the bridge would get have their heads shaved!

Another local rumour was that a tanuki lived in the thicket near the bridge and would wash azuki beans every night. (The noise of beans being washed in a river is often associated with yokai. For more about this “azuki-bean phenomena" See also: Azuki Arai, & family.) Perhaps the combination of the "shaved head rumour and the Tanuki rumour lead to the rumour that a tanuki would shave your head clean if you tried to cross it!

In the Edo period & ancient japan, your hair and how you wore it was an important symbol of status, But i think, any time period, getting it lobbed off completely (without your permission) would be devastating indeed!! - (see also:kamikiri)

When Shigeru Mizuki drew this yokai for his yokai encyclopedias, he also compiled & compared a few similar stories about other yokai that shaved peoples heads when crossing a bridge from other regions, including a Kitsune story from Okayama & Mujina story from Gunma Prefecture.  Ultimately he concluded that yokai sure do love to make fools of humans!

[bozu-danuki yokai card, Gegege TCG, 1997.]

Much more recently, in March of 2021, a yokai researcher from the area by the name of "Kazumichi Kawano" posted to his blog about this yokai and showed that the bridge in question had been removed and dismantled sometime around 2015. He also shows off some pictures taken in the area; A Jizo-san statue was erected in front of the thicket near where the bridge once stood.  It’s rumoured that it was put up to appease the Tanuki or stop his misbehaviour (but its hard to say why for certain.)

[Photos taken from the area in 2015: Image source Kazumichi Kawano]

I thought it would be funny to draw the Jizo statue giving the tanuki a shave. - snip-snip -

[Yokai Art Sticker by @Samkalensky part of my Hyakki Yagyo Night Parade of 100 yokai sticker collection, follow and support for many more! Thanks to @cattype for helping with editing!]