古烏
こがらす

Translation: old crow
Habitat: graveyards
Diet: human corpses

Appearance: Kogarasu were once old crows. After living for 1000 years, they transform into giant, blue, bird-like yōkai. They have two clawed hands where their wings should be, and one foot where their legs should be—for a total of three limbs. They wear long, flowing robes.

Behavior: Kogarasu haunt graveyards, which is also where they forage for their food: human corpses. They dig up the buried remains of people who in life were prideful and haughty and devour them.

Origin: A kogarasu appears in the Edo period scroll Tosa obake zōshi, a picture scroll that describes sixteen yōkai by an anonymous artist. While the description on the scroll doesn’t explicitly mention it, they probably come from Tosa Province (present-day Kōchi Prefecture).