BAKEZORI

Lore

Bakezori, written with the characters 化け草履—literally “haunted sandal”—is a yokai of the tsukumogami class: everyday objects that awaken after a hundred years of use or prolonged human neglect. Visually it’s just a flat straw zori, except two thin arms and two legs sprout from the edges and a single large eye stares from the middle of the sole.

A Bakezori takes shape in homes where the owners have tossed a worn-out pair of sandals into a closet or entryway. At night it sneaks out, scuttling on stubby legs, humming its song, tugging sleepers by the pinky toe, shredding paper screens, and ruining other shoes.

It almost never causes real bodily harm, but it steals sleep, unhinges nerves, and fills the house with low-grade dread. On the danger scale Bakezori is a prankster pest: its chief “attack” is disrupting rest after dark. Grabbing it rarely works—it’s nimble and dodges with ease, and if cornered it simply bolts into the shadows.