Tsuchikorobi - [Yokai]

Tsuchikorobi - 土転び（つちころび) aka "Tumbling earth, mallet” or "Landslide"

• About this yokai: a mallet or pestle-shaped, Dirt-Clod-dwelling Yokai reportedly met at night in forested mountain paths of the central, Chubu region, Tottori, & other mountainous regions across Japan. It has a fuzzy complection appearing similar to a tumbling Hay-Bail or a Marimo (Mossball) most often, it takes the form of a ball of upturned soil. It is commonly depicted with a single glowing red eye, a snake-like, arm or elephant trunk, which it uses to cling onto travellers. 
 Despite its somewhat frightening appearance, its said to actually be a gentle yokai it rolls over lost hikers, helping them find their way back to the path. - if you encounter it, and you stay still and let yourself be grabbed, it will roll past you & show you the way home. If you run away from it & panic, You will trip and soon find that you’ve become lost. - Perhaps most aptly put? - its a personification of landslides.

•History:  At its roots & in a nutshell: this yokai has a bit of a muddy history, it seems to be a regional variant or a relative to the Nozuchi; A thick, poisonous snake-like earth spirit that rolls down the hillsides to bite people. Because of this, tsuchikorobi is quite often depicted as a 'barrel bodied snake' , a literal mallet-turned-snake Tsukumogami, or as sturdier tsuchinoko.

[Yokotsuchi - Old straw/cloth mallets, supposedly the inspiration for these yokai.]

Hammers aside, it’s also worth note is that there are quite a few other yokai across Japan that do basically the same thing as tsuchikorobi does, a few similar 'rolling' yokai include but are not limited to: Tenkorobashi (a large bouncing-ball shaped yokai that bashes into people on the road on rainy nights) Yakan-Korogashi (the startling sound of an approaching, rolling tea kettle which surprises people in the forests.) Tsurube Otoshi (a man-eating head which falls out of trees, crushes or rolls after you.) there are also a few regional tanuki pranks that follow this pattern as well!

• Modern, Popculture: In the early 70's Tsuchikorobi became popularized by Shigeru Mizuki's works (such as Gegege No Kitaro & other adjacent projects.) - Mizuki was technically the first to illustrate this one. (Along with many others, to name a couple, Aburasumashi and Konakijiji) - like them, the creature itself is derived from the earlier folktales and various regional legends, particularly from tottori prefecture where it was described as a rolling mallet/snake.

[from Shigeru Mizukis Yokai Encyclopedia, 1991]

[Tsuchikorobi from the opening of Yokai 100 monsters [1968] – Shigeru Mizuki was also on staff as a consultant for the movie.]

...of course there have been dozens of other popculture appearances of this one since, notably it appears in the Persona/SMT series where they call it nozuchi instead (confusing.) - if you wanted one more pop culture factoid: I'll end this saying that "Tsuchikorobi-like" landslide legends likely inspired "Graveler" from the Pokemon series; considering that it likes to tumble over people like a boulder in the mountains...

Art sticker by samkalensky part of my yokai collection of stickers check my shop and support me for many more