HITOTSUME NYUDO
Lore
Hitotsume Nyudo is regarded as one of the most dangerous yokai. He looks like an enormous Buddhist monk, but where a normal face should be there is only a single, huge eye centered in his forehead. Some stories give him the more formal name Hitotsume Dainyudo, "the Great One-Eyed Monk." His appearances are always tied to remote mountains or forests, places where travelers find themselves far from any village.
Nyudo's first hallmark is his size. At first he shows up as a man of average height, then in an instant shoots up to ten feet or more. His second trick is the way he blends into heavy mist; the fog lets him materialize out of nowhere, catching people off guard or even freezing them in place with terror.
His garb-a monk's robe and straw sandals-matches the strict canon of Buddhist ascetics, and the clash between this holy attire and the horror of meeting a yokai on the road pushes travelers' fear to the limit. The psychological weight of seeing a figure of enlightenment transformed into a cyclopean predator is often enough to break a wanderer's spirit.
Legend ties Hitotsume Nyudo to Enryaku-ji Temple on Mt. Hiei and its abbot Ryogen, also known as Genzan Daishi. Ryogen was famed for ruthless discipline: he expelled lazy novices and stamped out corruption in the clergy. After his death, one version says, his fierce spirit found no peace and took on the demonic form of the one-eyed giant, still patrolling the mountains and punishing those who stray from the strict path of a monk.
