Japan is full of very interesting ghost stories and some of them are very bizarre. This includes the legend of the Abura-sumashi. It comes from folklore of Amakusa, a city in the pretty green hilly region Kumamoto Prefecture.
The Abura-sumashi is a type of ghost that dwells in the woodlands of the mountain pass named Kusazumigoe. The entity's name Abura-sumashi means "oil wringer", as this is probably rooted to the times when people were overworked, in poverty and often labouring over oil cloths, made from the seeds of camellia sasanqua plants. Such oil was used to generate light in houses before there was electricity.
The entity itself appears small and dressed in straw, with an oversized head that looked like a potato or a stone. There is a story that an old woman was walking along the mountain pass with her grandchild, when she said "this place used to be where the Abura-sumashi lived." Just then a strange light voice shouted out: "I still do!"
It's said that the Abura-sumashi jumped out in front of people who travelled there. It was also believed that this entity is the ghost of a thief who stole oil and ran away into the woods. Many viewed the theft of oil from shrines and temples as punishable by turning into a Yokai (earthbound spirit) as what might've happened with the Abura-sumashi.
She Wolf Night
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