Bizen whispering stone on the night road
Kosokoso-iwa
By day it is only a roadside rock. When the moon rises and footsteps sound alone, something behind the stone whispers, too softly to understand.
Overview
Kosokoso-iwa is a strange stone said to have stood in old Enjo Village of Bizen. At night, when a person passed nearby, it made a faint kosokoso whispering sound.
Encounter
A traveler passes the large roadside stone alone at night. In the darkness, a slight whispering or rustling leaks from the rock, though no speaker can be seen.
Lore
Yanagita Kunio's Yokai Dangi records a stone called Kosokoso-iwa in Bizen's Mitsu District. Such sound-making stones are linked to beliefs in spirits inhabiting rocks.
Traits
By day it is an ordinary boulder. At night it answers human passage with a whispering sound. It does not attack, but unsettles travelers and suggests a spirit or memory inside the stone.
Passing beside it at night, one heard a kosokoso sound.
Yanagita Kunio, Yokai Dangi