馬骨
ばこつ

Translation: horse bones
Habitat: houses
Diet: unknown

Appearance: Bakotsu look like horses, however they also have several human-like characteristics–they wear clothes and sit on their haunches like a person.

Behavior: Bakotsu are formed from horses that burned to death in fires. The resentful spirits of the horses, angry at being subjected to such a terrifying and painful death, transform into monsters and haunt their former owners.

Origin: A bakotsu appears in the Edo period scroll Tosa obake zōshi alongside a toad-like yōkai called yadomori. The two appear to be sitting and talking beneath a mosquito net.

During the Edo period, fat that was extracted from the bones of horses and cows was processed into crude and cheap candles. Popular folk beliefs said that horses and cows were particularly afraid of fire. Families that allowed these animals to die in such a horrible way fire would be cursed for several generations or fall into utter ruin.