Konaki-jiji

Konaki-jiji (translated into Old man crying and also known as the Myling) is a Japanese folklore figure.

The Konaki-jiji is said to be able to take the appearance of an old man or a baby.^[1][2] In either case, the spirit lures an unwary bypasser towards it and allows him or her to pick it up. After the spirit is picked up, it suddenly becomes a heavy stone that crushes the victim to death.^[1][2]

In some versions of Konaki-jiji stories, the spirit is that of a baby left to die in the wilderness.^[3]

The Konaki-jiji can be traced back to family records in Shikoku where the term was used to describe an old man who sounded like a child when he cried.^[4] The term was eventually used in a national encyclopedia of yokai and became a nationally known phenomenon.^[4]