Abura-sumashi

Local tradition offers an etiological explanation that abura-sumashi are the spirits of humans who stole oil and fled into the woods. Because oil was a valuable household commodity before electricity, theft (especially from temples and shrines) was morally serious; that wrongdoing is given cosmological consequence in the form of reincarnation or transformation into this yokai that haunts mountain roads.

Older oral accounts emphasize behavioral and apparition aspects (a disembodied voice or a sudden materialization on a mountain pass). In modern visual depictions—shaped by contemporary artists such as Shigeru Mizuki—the abura-sumashi is often shown as a squat creature with a straw-coat covered body and a potato-like or stony head. Traditional sources do not supply an extensive pre-modern physical description beyond manifestations and voice.

Reported behaviors include surprising travelers on mountain passes, materializing suddenly or appearing out of thin air, and replying verbally to conversational prompts (famous tales record a mysterious voice answering, "I still do!"). Its folkloric origin as the ghost of an oil thief implies a habit of haunting particular rural routes, though no specific supernatural powers beyond apparition and vocal reply are recorded in the provided sources.