Suppon no Yurei

In Japanese folklore suppon no yurei are the ghosts of soft shell turtles, who return to take revenge on those who have killed or eaten them. They appear with long legless bodies and faces with lips resembling a turtle. In one tale of a vengeful turtle ghost (also known as suppon on onryo) a man who owned a turtle restaurant slaughtered hundreds and thousands of turtles to serve his diners. One night he was alone in the restaurant and he felt darkness closing around him and a sense of being submerged underwater.

Mizuki Shigeru
In the dark he reached out and felt several turtle shells. He called out desperately to his wife. She arrived just in time to scare away the hundreds of turtles that were swarming around him. This continued to happen night after night until the man had learnt his lesson. He vowed that he would not take a life again, and the turtle ghosts never returned.

'Strange and Wondrous Immortal Turtles' - Utagawa Kuniyoshi, ca. 1850.

Mizuki Shigeru

'Strange and Wondrous Immortal Turtles' - Utagawa Kuniyoshi, ca. 1850.

Mizuki Shigeru

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