This is a story of a mysterious child called Zashiki Warashi.
Zashiki means a guest room and Warashi is an old way to call a little child in Japan.

Long time ago, there was a big Japanese styled inn in a small village of Hachinohe in Aomori prefecture. The inn had a pretty good guest room in its deepest corner.

One day there stayed a man alone.At night, when he was almost to sleep, a little child opened a sliding door and came into the room asking him to play arm wrestling with. He thought the child was the son of the master's couple and came there to welcome their guest. He played arm wrestling with the child for a while. But only he could find that surprisingly the child was so strong and he couldn't win at all.

Next morning he told the master's couple, " Your child is very tough. We played arm wrestling last night, but I was completely beaten up." But they looked puzzled and said, "We have no such a child." He wondered and said to himself, "Then, where was that child from?"

Thereafter whenever visitors stayed and slept in the room, the child came and played fun holding and throwing a pillow and blankets all through night. None of others was able to see the child except the visitors staying in the room.

The rumor about the inn was spread into the whole town, "There lives Zashiki Warashi in the inn."

A lot of people came and wanted to stay the room and see the child. Thanks to Zashiki Warashi the inn got a thousands times more prosperous on their business than before. And then the master's couple became not to work very hard any more.

One day after 4 or 5 years passed when the master was sitting at the counter of the inn, a figure passed in front of him. "What is it?" the master wondered. It was a little child trotting out of the inn. "Hey Clark, who was the child coming out from the back room just now?" "I don't know, Master." The clerk answered. He ran after the figure but there was no one to be seen any more. Since this strange incident happened, the child has never appeared in front of the people.

For that reason the guests of the inn decreased day by day. And finally the inn went to collapse a few years later. Nobody knew the reason why the child had gone. But they talked, "The child must have beenZashiki Warashi."

That's a God who brings happiness and prosperity. A similar story of Zashiki Warashi was heard not only in this inn but some other big and old inns wide around the northern part of Japan. However we have never heard a rumor that somebody saw the child ever since. Where Zashiki Warashi has gone? He may be in your home now. In the dark can't you hear footsteps in your room?