Shōjō

In Chinese classical sources the creature appears as the xing‑xing/ sheng sheng, a marvelous primate recorded in geographic and pharmacological texts (Shan Hai Jing, Bencao Gangmu). Chinese compendia described it among remote mountain beasts and recorded practical interactions (including capture reports from southern locales). Through cultural transmission and literary adaptation the figure was adopted into Japanese performance and folk imagination as the shōjō: a spirit figure associated with the sea, red hair/face, and prodigious drinking, a transformation grounded in but distinct from the original Chinese animal accounts.

Chinese textual descriptions vary: Shan Hai Jing compares it to a yu/long‑tailed ape and mentions white ears and humanlike facial features; another passage describes a green animal with a human face. Bencao Gangmu likens it to a dog or rhesus macaque with yellow fur and white ears. Japanese theatrical convention (Noh) depicts the shōjō with a red‑tinged face, large red wig and red clothing; on stage it appears as a red‑faced, red‑haired spirit. Across sources the creature is primatelike with human facial traits, though fur/skin coloration differs between accounts and theatrical usage.

Across sources the creature is repeatedly associated with an intense fondness for alcohol: Chinese materia medica records luring/capture with wine, while the Noh drama centers on its prodigious drinking and ecstatic dancing. Shan Hai Jing ascribes to it recognition of human names and notable agility (crouching gait but able to run like humans), and one account suggests meat eaten from it imparts swiftness. In the Noh narrative the shōjō can adopt a human guise to purchase sake, later reveal its true form, become intoxicated and dance, and (within the play) bestow a supernatural boon—making a sake vat perpetually refill itself. These abilities are recorded as literary/theatrical motifs rather than standardized ritual powers.