置行堀
おいてけぼり

Translation: drop-it-and-get-out-of-here canal

Appearance: Oitekebori is a mysterious apparition that was seen in Honjo, Sumida ward, Tokyo. It takes the form of a human ghost, and haunts fishermen and others who stray too close to its home in the canals. Its name derives from a slang version of the phrase, “oite ike!” meaning, “drop it and get out of here!”

Origin: Nobody really knows exactly what oitekebori was. The most likely explanation is that a kappa was responsible. Hungry and too lazy to fish on his own, he terrorized some innocent fishermen and stole their catch. Other explanations blame a tricky tanuki. Still other explanations exist, covering everything from a yūrei, a kawauso, a mujina, or a suppon (a soft-shelled turtle-turned-yokai).

Legends: Long ago, Honjo was full of canals and waterways, and those canals were teaming with fish. It was common for people to make their living catching and selling fish caught in the moat system.

One night, two fishermen were fishing in a particular spot in Honjo at sunset. They noticed that they were catching many more fish than usual, and so they fished and fished, filling their baskets to the brim. After some time, when they could hold no more fish, they happily packed up their tackle and prepared to carry their large catches home. Just as they were about to leave, they heard an eerie, terrible voice come up from the canal: “Oiteke!”

What happens next depends on who is telling the story. Some say that both fishermen dropped their baskets and fled, and when they returned later that night, both baskets were empty. Others say that they fled home with their baskets, but when they got home and looked inside, there wasn’t even a single fish in the baskets. But the most chilling version goes like this:

Both fisherman turned and fled from the canal, one of them dropping his basket and the other taking his basket with him. The fisherman who dropped his basket ran all the way back to his house and bolted the door shut. The other fisherman didn’t get very far — a ghostly hand rose up out of the canal and dragged him down into the water, basket and all. And he was never seen again.