A Heian-Era “Japanese Dog Ghost Story” – The Middle Counselor and the Mystery of the Demon’s True Form

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In Japan, summer is not only a season of heat but also of ghost stories.

There is a long-standing tradition of telling scary tales during the hottest months, the idea being that a chill down your spine might help you feel cooler.

Today, however, I want to share a ghost story with a twist—one involving a dog.

Our source is the Konjaku Monogatari-shū, a vast anthology compiled about 1,000 years ago, containing hundreds of tales from Japan, China, and India.

From this collection comes a story titled:

“The Tale of the Dog That Appeared at the House of Middle Counselor Ki no Haseo”

Long ago, there was a highly learned court scholar named Middle Counselor Ki no Haseo.

He was unmatched in intellect and wisdom, a man of high rank and great reputation, but there was one field in which he had no knowledge at all: onmyōdō—the traditional Japanese practice of divination and occult arts based on yin-yang and the five elements.

One day, a dog began to appear frequently at his estate.

It would leap over the walls and urinate in his yard, day after day.

Thinking this strange, Haseo consulted a certain onmyōji (diviner) and asked whether this was a good or bad omen.

The onmyōji replied:

“On a certain day this month, a demon will appear in your house.

But it will not harm or curse anyone.”

The onmyōji also advised, “You should remain in seclusion on that day to avoid misfortune.”

However, when the day came, Haseo completely forgot the warning and did not perform the seclusion.

Instead, he gathered his students for a poetry meeting, where they composed Chinese-style poems and praised one another’s work.

In the middle of this literary gathering, a terrifying roar came from a storeroom (called a nurigome) nearby.

The students froze in fear, whispering, “What is that sound?”

The door of the storeroom slid open slightly, and something began to move out.

It was about two feet tall, with a white body, a black face, a single black horn on its forehead, and four white legs—looking exactly like a demon.

Everyone panicked, except for one courageous man who rushed forward and struck the creature on the head.

The blow knocked away the black “head”—and standing there was nothing more than a white dog.

The poor animal had stuck its head into a hanjō, a vessel for holding hot water or soup, and had been unable to get it out.

Its muffled cries had sounded eerie and monstrous, leading everyone to believe a demon had appeared.

Once the truth was revealed, the fear melted away, replaced by laughter.

People remarked:

“It wasn’t a real demon, but it looked like one to the human eye, so the divination was correct.

And the part about it not harming anyone—also true!”

The onmyōji’s skill was praised far and wide.

However, the great scholar was also ridiculed for forgetting the day of seclusion—an unthinkable lapse for such a learned man.

The story quickly became the talk of the town, told and retold for amusement.

What at first seemed like a ghost story turned out to be a comedy.

As for the dog itself—what breed was it?

Was it an ancestor of today’s Shiba Inu or Akita Inu, or perhaps a breed that no longer exists in Japan?

Sadly, no illustration survives to tell us, but the tale gives us a small but vivid glimpse into how people and dogs lived together in the Heian period.