Tsuchinoko: The Folklore Creature Japanese Towns Put Bounties On

On 3 May 2026, people gathered in Higashishirakawa, a small mountain village in Gifu Prefecture, to hunt for an animal nobody has ever proven exists. A prize of 1,340,000 yen was on offer, and the Gifu Shimbun reported that more people took part than live in the village. The animal they were looking for is the tsuchinoko, a creature from Japanese folklore. For decades, towns across Japan have put money on its capture.

Quick facts

• Verdict: The tsuchinoko comes from traditional folklore that predates the internet, and no capture has ever been confirmed. The bounties are local tourism events, not evidence that the creature exists.
• Name: Tsuchinoko (ツチノコ), meaning “child of a mallet.” In the Tohoku region it is called bachi-hebi.
• Type: A creature from Japanese folklore, often treated as an unidentified mystery animal (a UMA).
• Earliest confirmed record: 1799, in an eyewitness account from Kaga Province, as described by Japanese Wikipedia.
• Where it spread: Sightings were reported all over Japan in the late 1980s. Capture bounties have been offered in Gifu, Niigata and Hyogo prefectures.

What the story says

The written sources say little about the tsuchinoko’s story. What they agree on is that it is a creature from Japanese folklore. Its name is written with characters meaning “child of a mallet.” It goes by different names in different regions: tsuchinoko is the usual name in western Japan, and people in the Tohoku region in the north-east call it bachi-hebi. Having different local names suggests that people in many parts of the country knew the creature before any single name took over.

The story is mainly one of sightings. Japanese Wikipedia says the oldest written account is an eyewitness report from the late eighteenth century. According to English Wikipedia, sightings became frequent all over Japan in the late 1980s. The Japanese-language research behind this article describes a tsuchinoko boom that ran through the 1970s and 1980s. The best-known recent chapter isn’t a new sighting, though. It’s the capture bounties that several towns and villages have offered as part of local tourism efforts. Those bounties have kept people searching for the animal long after the boom, and they have never been paid out.

Earliest confirmed record

Japanese Wikipedia gives the earliest known record as 1799. It says an eyewitness account of the creature appears in the Seijo Kaidan-roku (聖城怪談録), a collection of strange tales from Enuma District in Kaga Province, and calls this the oldest written record of the tsuchinoko.

There is one caveat. The research behind this article did not check the original text of the Seijo Kaidan-roku. The 1799 date and the description of the account both come from Wikipedia, a secondary source. Readers should treat it as the earliest record that has been reported, not one that has been checked against the original.

What is documented

The best-documented part of the tsuchinoko story is the money. Three places in Japan have offered bounties, and newspapers, local governments and tourism bodies have recorded them.

Higashishirakawa, Gifu Prefecture. Japanese Wikipedia says the village has run a capture bounty since 1989 and raised it every year. The Gifu Shimbun reports that the prize started at 1,000,000 yen and has gone up by 10,000 yen each year. The village’s own website lists a bounty of 1,340,000 yen for fiscal year 2026, running from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The site also says the village holds a Tsuchinoko Festa every year on 3 May. The Gifu Shimbun reported that the 2026 hunt drew more participants than the village’s population.

Nou district, Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture. The Niigata Prefecture Tourism Association says a “Tsuchinoko Expedition” (tsuchinoko tankentai) has been held in Nou since 2006, with a prize of 100 million yen for catching one alive. The event is run by an organising committee set up for the expedition. The association’s listing shows that the 21st expedition took place on 23 and 24 May 2026, so the event is still running. Japanese Wikipedia also describes the Nou bounty as an annual event with a top prize of 100 million yen.

Former town of Chikusa, Hyogo Prefecture. The Kobe Shimbun reports that in 1992, Chikusa offered 200 million yen for a live tsuchinoko. Japanese Wikipedia calls this the highest tsuchinoko bounty ever offered. Nobody managed to catch one, and the bounty was abolished. Japanese Wikipedia connects the end of the bounty to Chikusa’s merger into Shiso City. The town itself no longer exists: on 1 April 2005 it merged with the towns of Yamasaki, Ichinomiya and Haga to form Shiso. The 200-million-yen bounty is no longer on offer.

The creature still has a place in the area. The Kobe Shimbun reports that Michi-no-Eki Chikusa, a roadside rest stop, now has a tsuchinoko sculpture made of wood as part of its tourism efforts. The old prize has been replaced with a gentler offer: anyone who catches a real tsuchinoko gets a pass for free lunches at the restaurant for a year.

None of these bounties is evidence that the tsuchinoko exists. They are best seen as community events that use a well-known folk creature to bring visitors to rural areas, and the organisers have kept them going for decades. The prize amounts also change and depend on who runs each event. Anyone interested in current details should check the official websites of the organisers or local governments.

What is contested

The main open question is whether the creature exists at all. None of the sources used here confirms that a tsuchinoko has ever been caught. The Kobe Shimbun’s report that nobody won Chikusa’s 200-million-yen prize is the clearest documented sign that no specimen has been produced. The yearly increases in Higashishirakawa point the same way, since the prize has grown every year it went unclaimed.

The sightings are harder to judge. English Wikipedia records many sighting reports from across Japan in the late 1980s, but a report is not the same as a verified observation. The 1799 account is the oldest known record, but as noted above, it comes to us through a secondary summary. The historical record shows that people kept telling stories about the creature and reporting sightings. It does not show that the animal exists.

There are also small differences in how the sources describe the bounties. Japanese Wikipedia calls the Nou prize a maximum of 100 million yen, while the tourism association simply says 100 million yen is offered for a live capture. For Chikusa, Japanese Wikipedia links the end of the bounty to the municipal merger, while the Kobe Shimbun only reports that it was abolished after nobody caught one. Neither difference changes the main picture.

How it is discussed in Japan today

Ocsoku, a Japanese occult blog, has covered the tsuchinoko in one post, published in 2019.