Wanyudo and "the Village of Shobo": A Yokai Kept Away by a Slip of Paper

The wanyudo is a rather dangerous yokai: anyone who sees it, they say, has their soul taken. And yet getting rid of it is remarkably easy. Just write "This is the village of Shobo" on a piece of paper and put it up. That's the note the Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien added to his picture of the wanyudo. A blazing wheel, defeated by a single slip of paper. Follow the reason why, and you'll find a small game of learning that people in Edo-period Japan enjoyed.

Sekien's burning wheel

The wanyudo's look has come down to us through Sekien's yokai picture book Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. A wheel from an ox-drawn carriage, wrapped in flames, and right in the center, where the axle runs through, the huge face of a shaven-headed man. Sekien notes that this face takes people's souls.

Sekien drew a great many yokai, drawing on old legends and stories. His pictures often come with more than just a figure: a short explanation, or a bit of wordplay. To learn more about what kind of artist he was, see our story on Toriyama Sekien.

Where is "the village of Shobo"?

Read literally, "Shobo" (勝母) means "to defeat one's mother." In fact, the phrase is thought to come from an old Chinese tale.

The story goes that Zengzi, a disciple of Confucius famous for his devotion to his parents, heard of a village called Shengmu ("Shobo" in Japanese) and refused to set foot in it. The name itself, "defeating one's mother," went against the respect a child owes their parents, or so the tale explains.

Apply that to the wanyudo, and the paper becomes a sign announcing: "This is the village of Shobo, a place a person of good character won't enter." And so the yokai, too, keeps away from a village with such a name. For anyone who knew the Chinese tale, it might have been a trick that raised a knowing smile. Dodging a terrifying fire wheel with a bit of book learning: that playful spirit is very much part of Edo-period yokai pictures.

A yokai you must not look at

The wanyudo's danger lies in the very act of seeing it. Anyone who sees it is said to lose their soul.

In the old days, if you heard a noise outside at night, you kept the doors shut and stayed in. Even if you heard a fire wheel come rumbling down the street, you weren't to peek. If you don't look, nothing happens. Read this way, the wanyudo story carries a sense of guarding the boundary between the world outside at night and the safety of the home. Putting up a paper charm may have been a gesture to make that boundary firm.

How it differs from the katawaguruma

There's another fire-cart yokai, the katawaguruma, or "one-wheeled cart." Their names and looks are similar, so they're easily mixed up, but they're different yokai.

• Wanyudo: a man's shaven-headed face in the middle of a burning wheel, said to take the soul of anyone who sees it
• Katawaguruma: often told of as a woman riding a flaming cart that has only one wheel. Its best-known tale comes from Omi, today's Shiga Prefecture

Katawaguruma stories often follow the same thread: someone secretly peeks out from inside the house, and misfortune falls on them. Here too, "don't look" is the key, and the two fire carts seem to echo each other.

You'll find the wanyudo's pixel art and legend on its Yokaipedia page. And if you ever hear a rumbling from the street at night, don't peek. Just let it roll on by.