Urban legend / Paranormal / ghost stories
Searching for the Gourd Snake of Mount Wakasugi: A Childhood Cryptid Hunt in Fukuoka
This article summarizes what the featured video claims. It does not present those claims as established fact. Read the Japanese version.
The Hyotan Hebi of Mount Wakasugi
A snake with a body shaped like a gourd—such a story is said to circulate around Mount Wakasugi in Fukuoka Prefecture. Known as the Hyotan Hebi, or “gourd snake,” it is said to live underground and feed on moles and other animals.
Digging through the mountain in midsummer
The story takes place when Yo-kai Watch was at the height of its popularity. The narrator recalls that interest in the occult was growing and that many classmates were searching for the same creature. He and a friend entered Mount Wakasugi and kept digging until evening.
He writes candidly that, somewhere in his heart, he knew they would not find it no matter how far they dug. The final hole they excavated opened into a large horizontal cavity, but when they looked inside, nothing was there.
One creature appeared as they were leaving
The narrator says that he and his friend looked at each other and rushed over just as a snake with a gourd-shaped body was disappearing into a side tunnel. He tried to grab it, but despite its appearance it dug quickly and escaped.
They returned to the mountain several times afterward but never saw it again. As an adult he stopped digging—he adds that doing so might now get him reported—but says he still walks the mountain on free days. The account closes with a line about how seeing children search for something there still makes his heart swell.
Editor’s note
A summer spent digging through the earth, and the single creature that appeared just as they were leaving. More than the question of whether that brief glimpse truly was the Hyotan Hebi, the ending lingers because it connects the narrator’s memory with children who may still be searching the same mountain today.
Watch the video
怪談朗読
Key moments
- ▶ 0:06
The video begins by explaining the Hyotan Hebi said to inhabit Mount Wakasugi in Fukuoka Prefecture: a snake with a gourd-shaped body that supposedly lives underground and feeds on moles and other animals.
- ▶ 0:33
The narrator looks back on a time when the Yo-kai Watch boom had made the occult popular and says many of his classmates were searching for the same creature.
- ▶ 0:48
He candidly says he knew somewhere in his heart that digging would not produce anything. A large cavity opened beside their final hole, but they saw nothing when they looked inside.
- ▶ 1:02
As they were leaving, he says, a snake emerged from another hole and its gourd-shaped body slipped into a side tunnel. He tried to catch it, but it dug away quickly. There is no physical evidence, and the account comes from one witness.
- ▶ 1:33
He says he never encountered it again and stopped digging once he grew up. The story ends with him still walking the mountain and feeling moved when he sees children searching for something there.
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