Yamawaro

◆ The legend

A yokai told of in the mountains of western Japan, especially Kyushu. It is usually described as about the size of a child, with a hairy body, and is said to keep out of sight, living quietly deep in the mountains. Even so, it is said to pop up now and then near the places where people work in the forest.

It gets along rather well with mountain workers. Stories tell of woodcutters who shared their food with a yamawaro, and in return it carried huge trees that several men together could not move, as if they weighed nothing. In Kyushu, it is also said that the yamawaro was a river kappa all along: in autumn it goes up into the mountains and becomes a yamawaro, and in spring it comes back down to the river and turns into a kappa again. A yokai that moves between mountain and river with the seasons.