Wanyudo

◆ The legend

A wheel from an ox-drawn carriage, blazing with fire, and in its center the huge face of a man with a shaven head. That is the wanyudo. It is said to roll through the streets at night, and anyone who sees it has their soul taken away. "Nyudo" originally meant a person who had entered Buddhist life, but in yokai names it often points to a big, shaven-headed man-like monster.

The wanyudo's look has come down to us through Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, a yokai picture book by the Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien. The ox cart, or gissha, was the carriage of Heian-period nobles, pulled by an ox. To people in the Edo period it already called up the old capital of long ago. That old wheel, wrapped in flames, with a face in the middle glaring right at you: once seen, it's hard to forget.