Hitotsume-kozō
Hitotsume-kozō (一つ目小僧) are a Yōkai (supernatural apparition) of Japan that take on the appearance of a bald-headed child with one eye in the center of its forehead similar to a cyclops.
[1] They take on the appearance of a kozō (a monk in training), but there is also the theory that they come from the yōkai from Mount Hiei, the ichigan hitoashi hōshi (一眼一足法師, one-eyed one-footed Buddhist priest) said to be what the 18th Tendaizasu, Ryōgen turned into.
[3] They can frequently be seen in kaidan, essays, and modern folkloristics material, but the story from "Kaidanoi no Tsue (怪談老の杖)" by Tōsaku Ikō is especially well-known.
According to the "Aizu Kaidan Shū (会津怪談集)", near the Honshi no Chō (本四ノ丁) in Aizuwakamatsu, a girl met a child who was eight or nine years of age who asked "onee-san, do you money?"
[5] Also, in the "Okayama no Kaidan", at Kamimomiimaidani, Kumenan, Kume District, Okayama Prefecture, there was a hill road called Hitokuchizaka (一口坂, "one mouth hill"), and in the past, when one walks that path at night, a bright blue light together with a hitotsume-kozō would appear, and those who are unable to stand due to surprise/fear would be licked by one mouthful of a long tongue, and this would be where the name Hitokuchizaka came from.
All of the people were one-eyed, and it ended with "how strange he is, he has two eyes", and "quickly, let's put him on exhibit" (furthermore, geographically, 120 ri north of Edo would be about 470 kilometers, which would be the Iwate or Akita Prefecture).
With this background, since hitotsume-kozō have the appearance of a child and the clothing of a young priest, it is thought that babies born with one eye were called this, which is where it started.
[14][15] In Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1932 (Showa 7), a skull with only one eye socket was dug up from the cemetery inside the city, and it was presumed to have been the result of someone who was attacked by wild dogs after collapsing, and a "Hitotsume-kozō Jizō" was constructed as a memorial for this, and afterwards people connected it with the legend of hitotsume-kozō and conveyed between people.
