Turtle spirits that made a cook repent
Suppon no Onryo
Hundreds of turtles were cut apart, and the shop prospered. Each night cold shells piled higher on Kameroku's bedding until he put down the knife.
Overview
Suppon no Onryo is a haunting recorded in the Echigo strange-tale collection Hokuetsu Kidan. Hundreds of softshell turtles killed for a thriving restaurant appear night after night to pin down the cook Kameroku, who finally repents and becomes a monk.
Encounter
Late at night, Kameroku wakes under a cold weight as if soaked in water. He reaches out and touches a turtle. Hundreds are piled across his bedding, but they vanish by morning.
Lore
Tachibana Konron's Hokuetsu Kidan, illustrated by Katsushika Hokusai, includes the story under the title of Kameroku seeing the mud-turtle apparition and becoming a monk.
Traits
The spirits of slaughtered turtles gather into a mass, weighing down the sleeper and chilling him like the bottom of water. Repeated nightly guilt drives Kameroku to abandon killing.
Kameroku saw the mud-turtle apparition and became a monk.
Hokuetsu Kidan