児啼爺の碑（藤川谷） · Site · Miyoshi (Yamashiro), Tokushima
The Konaki-jiji Statue at Fujikawa Valley
A stone statue of the crying old man by a mountain road above the Ōboke gorge, in the valley where the 1938 record placed him.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Site
- Prefecture
- Tokushima · Miyoshi (Yamashiro)
- Nearest station
- Ōboke Station (JR Dosan Line)
- From the station
- About 40 minutes on foot or ten minutes by car up the valley; five parking spaces
- English signage
- some
- Opening hours and admission
- See the official site (external link) · information checked on 2026-11-03
Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.
What is there
The Fujikawa valley climbs away from the Ōboke gorge in the far west of Tokushima, a narrow road between steep woods and a few houses. By the road stands a stone statue of an old man with an infant’s face, put up by the people of the valley where the creature was recorded. There is nothing else: a small parking place, a signboard, and the sound of the stream. The district of Yamashiro has made its yokai a local cause, and the roadside station in the gorge below keeps a hall of some seventy of them, with the stone museum beside it.Why here
The record of 1938 is one line: in the mountains of this district lives an old man who cries like a baby, and whoever picks him up finds him growing heavier until he cannot be put down. The creature had no face until Mizuki Shigeru drew it, and the statue in the valley is that face returned to the place of the record. The article has the record and what was built on it.Yokai you will meet
- Konaki-jiji 児啼爺 — The statue in the valley where the 1938 record placed the crying old man.
Getting there
Ōboke Station (JR Dosan Line). About 40 minutes on foot or ten minutes by car up the valley; five parking spaces.
Sources and further reading
- Reliable secondary Konaki-jijii Statue (external link) Miyoshi City Tourism Association (Tokushima) English page for the statue in the Fujikawa valley: location, parking and access from Ōboke.
- Reliable secondary Yokai Yashiki and Stone Museum (Michi-no-eki Ōboke) (external link) Miyoshi City Tourism Association (Tokushima) English page for the yokai hall at the Ōboke roadside station.
- Fieldwork collection Konaki-jiji and Gogya-naki, card 2180717 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies From Tabi to Densetsu, 1938. Miyoshi district, Tokushima: deep in the mountains, the appearance of an old man and the cry of an infant. The same card reports the identification with Gogya-naki, which is described quite differently.
Other places with these yokai
- Kitarō Chaya 鬼太郎茶屋 Shop
- Mizuki Shigeru Road 水木しげるロード Street
- Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum 水木しげる記念館 Museum
- Yokai Yashiki at Ōboke 妖怪屋敷と石の博物館（道の駅大歩危） Museum
Other places in Tokushima
- Yokai Yashiki at Ōboke 妖怪屋敷と石の博物館（道の駅大歩危） Museum