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Nozuchi (野づち or のづち or 野槌 Nozuchi, lit. wild hammer, meaning field spirit or field serpent) is a serpent-like yōkai that can suck up anything in its path.
Appearance[]
Hiderigami offers a "peace proposal" to Nozuchi in the 1985 anime.
In Shinigami Tai-Senki and Iyan Nacchau Bushi, unusually small individuals were seen.
Personality[]
In the manga episodes, Nozuchi were depicted to be rather harmless unlike the 1996 anime.
Unlike the rest of the series, Nozuchi in the 1996 anime was described to be a brainless being who only followed its instinct to vacuum anything around it, akin to the nature of Yakanzuru.
In the 1985 anime, it was noted on several occasions that Nozuchi has a friendly rivalry with Hiderigami.
History[]
Hiderigami (story)/1968 Anime[]
It has been sleeping in Nozuchi-Zuka for 300 years, but was awakened by Kitarō to deal with the enlarged Hiderigami. After sucking Hiderigami, it attacked Kitarō, but made a deal for peaceful sleep and released the weaken Hiderigami, and fell asleep again after taking a sleeping pill given.
1985 Anime[]
Nozuchi appears in episode #29 of the third anime adaptation, Yōkai Hiderigami. Nozuchi laid dormant in the Nozuchi-Zuka, but was awakened by Kitarō tricking a rampaging Hiderigami into destroying the Nozuchi-Zuka. The awakened Nozuchi quickly deals with Hiderigami by sucking him in. But it soon goes on a rampage, almost sucking in Kitarō, and was on its way to inhale a nearby village, forcing Kitarō to trick it into sucking up its own tail. Kitarō promises to help Nozuchi if it returns to its hibernation. Nozuchi complies, letting go of its tail and releasing a weakened Hiderigami.
Following this incident, he occasionally appears as an ally of Kitarō, with it and Hiderigami developing a close friendship. Nozuchi formed the main armament of Yagyō-san's Yōkai Tank, being called in to absorb the the Man-Eating House and the Yōkai Emperor's followers in GeGeGe no Kitarō: Gekitotsu!! Ijigen Yōkai no Dai-Hanran.
1996 Anime[]
Nozuchi appears in episode #27 of the fourth anime adaptation, Sucking Devil! Yōkai Nozuchi.
Long ago, Nozuchi was sealed by the Ancient Gods in the Nozuchi-Zuka, which Sunakake-Babaa once used in her youth to dispose of her love letters. In the present day, Jun Tanimoto and Nezumi-Otoko discovered the Nozuchi-Zuka, when they discovered that the hole in it could absorb anything, such as Jun's bad test scores and the shimenawa on the stone which Nezumi-Otoko used as a rope to hide from debt collectors. Nezumi-Otoko turned the hole into a garbage disposal site that never became full. But with the shimenawa removed, Nozuchi awoke from its slumber, going on a rampage and absorbing anything and anyone in its vicinity, including Kitarō.
After learning that the Nozuchi's intestines work as a four-dimensional space, Sunakake-Babaa went into Nozuchi to rescue Kitarō and advise him how to defeat Nozuchi, to which Kitarō uses the Yōkai Tornado technique to straighten Nozuchi's intestines, releasing everything it had absorbed. Kitarō tricks Nozuchi into absorbing its own tail, leaving it to drop into the Nozuchi-Zuka's hole, sealing it once more.
2018 Anime[]
Nozuchi was featured in the 2023 movie The Birth of Kitarō: Mystery of GeGeGe
Shinigami Tai-Senki[]
It was one of Yōkai to assembled to fight off Western Yōkai.
Kitarō Kunitori Monogatari[]
It appeared to watch sumo wrestlings held by Boze.
Shinpen GeGeGe no Kitarō[]
It was awakened from Nozuchi-Zuka to counter Enra-Enra who became enlarged and violent after absorbing the air pollution in cities. It returned Enra-Enra to normal by sucking in the poisons, but soon fell unconscious. Later, as Nezumi-Otoko lied to Nozuchi when waking up that Nozuchi can have "tasty" gas and smokes, Nozuchi brought a trial for this.
Powers and Abilities[]
Vacuum Breath
It is a powerful being, and it was noted in the 1996 anime that like Daidarabotchi, it wasn't an easy task to seal it even for an ancient god.
Vacuum Breath: Nozuchi can inhale objects including buildings like a tornado. In the 1985 anime, this ability was used as a main weapon for Yagyō-san's Yōkai Tank. In the 1996 anime this was explained as its intestine was connected to a fourth dimension and Nozuchi can inhale objects limitlessly. Kitarō fixed this with his Chanchanko to create a tornado of Yōkai energy.
Legend[]
Nozuchi are serpentine yōkai living in fields. They are thick hammer-like snakes with their only facial feature being their mouth, reaching up to one meter in length. They inhabit holes in trees deep in the mountains, preying on rabbits and baby squirrels by swallowing them whole, they are even capable of swallowing a whole deer. In the Nara Prefecture, it runs down hills and chases after people quickly. However, it is very slow in climbing. So if you encounter it, you should climb to a high place where it can't reach you.
Nozuchi is one of the oldest known yōkai, their origins hailing back to the Kojiki, thought to be an alternate name for the Shinto goddess Kaya-no-Hime.
In the Shasekishū, while two student monks were in training, they promised each other that if either of them were to die and be reborn, they would surely come to tell each other where they were. When one of the monks died, the dead monk appeared to his companion in a dream to inform him that he had been reborn as a Nozuchi. Because the monk was only good at speaking, when reborn as a Nozuchi, only his mouth stayed in his new form.
Tsuchinoko was thought to be an regional name for Nozuchi before being spun into its own identity.
Trivia[]
- In the 1968 anime, voice effects of Godzilla and Gamera were partially used for Nozuchi along with Gyūki in the 1971 anime.