Why Is It Said You Shouldn't Look Back in Japanese Mountains? The Legend of Tengu and Foxes Taking People Away Is Strikingly Similar to Taiwan's Moshen-ai

Walking alone on a mountain path in Japan, if you feel something is following you, it's best not to suddenly stop or turn around? This is not a universally observed hiking taboo across Japan, but rather an ancient folk tradition preserved in certain regions. Japanese mountain folklore includes not only the 'don't look back' warning associated with the 'Okuri-ookami' (sending wolf), but also tales of tengu abducting people, foxes causing disorientation, and mysterious disappearances known as 'kamikakushi' (spirit hiding). Interestingly, these stories share many similarities with the 'Moshen-ai taking people' legends familiar to people in Taiwan, even including the practice of searching for the missing by entering the mountains and loudly calling their names—a method found in folk records from both Taiwan and Japan.

Why is it said you shouldn't look back in Japanese mountains? The 'Okuri-ookami' legend provides clear documentation.

The idea that 'you must not look back when entering Japanese mountains' is not a rule followed by all Japanese people, but in certain mountain legends, a clear taboo against looking back does exist. The 'Database of Supernatural and Yōkai Traditions' maintained by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies records a tradition from Nara Prefecture describing a being known as the 'Okuri-ookami' (sending wolf). The story goes that when a person walks on a mountain path, a wolf follows closely behind; in such a situation, one must not stop or look back, but instead continue walking at the same pace until safely descending the mountain.

Versions of the Okuri-ookami legend vary across regions. In some stories, the greatest taboo is not 'looking back' but 'falling down.' It is believed that if a person falls on a mountain path, the wolf following behind may seize the opportunity to attack. Therefore, those walking at night must be especially cautious.

In other words, there is no single, nationwide set of rules for the Okuri-ookami, but the narrative structure—'an unknown presence follows from behind, and the person must not easily stop, fall, or look back'—repeatedly appears in mountain traditions.

Why do these stories always take place in the mountains? The Japanese once viewed mountains as 'another world.'

Why are tengu, Okuri-ookami, and kamikakushi always associated with mountains?

According to the 'Encyclopedia of Shinto' compiled by Kokugakuin University, when summarizing traditional Japanese views of the 'other world,' it notes that Japanese conceptions of the supernatural realm extend beyond just heaven or the underworld—mountains and seas could also be seen as spaces distinct from everyday human life. Mountain passes, slopes, and foothills were often imagined as boundaries between the human world and the other world.

This concept is not difficult to understand. Villages represent familiar, orderly human society. Once one leaves the settlement and enters deep mountains, light, direction, sound, and terrain all change. In an era without mobile phones, GPS, or even well-developed roads, getting lost, injured, or disappearing in the mountains was extremely dangerous.

Thus, people began seeking explanations for unknown phenomena. Mysterious loud noises in the mountains might be attributed to tengu; repeatedly walking in circles on familiar paths might be seen as being bewitched by foxes; and someone suddenly entering the mountains and never being found again might be said to have been 'spirited away' (kamikakushi).

From this perspective, the 'don't look back' rule can also be understood as a symbolic mountain taboo: since you are leaving a dangerous and unknown world, you should not turn around and re-engage with the presence behind you.

What is 'kamikakushi' in Japan? In the past, disappearances really were blamed on tengu.

One of the most famous concepts in Japanese ghost stories is 'kamikakushi' (spirit hiding). Japanese dictionary definitions of 'kamikakushi' typically describe it as the sudden disappearance of a child or person, with people in the past often attributing the cause to supernatural beings such as mountain gods or tengu.

In other words, 'kamikakushi' was not originally the name of a specific yōkai, but rather a supernatural explanation for mysterious disappearances.

Japanese local folk records also preserve many cases of people being 'taken away by tengu.' Local records from Nagano Prefecture, collected by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, document that 'kamikakushi' was once referred to as 'being taken by tengu.' In other regions, stories circulated of children entering the mountains and suddenly vanishing, with villagers ultimately attributing the event to tengu. This gave rise to the term 'tengu-kakushi' (tengu hiding).

Tengu themselves are closely tied to Japanese mountain worship. In legends across different eras, they have been portrayed as powerful mountain beings capable of making strange noises, playing pranks, or even abducting people.

Not only tengu—foxes can also cause people to get 'lost in circles.'

If tengu are most similar to 'taking people away,' foxes are close to the Taiwanese concept of 'gui da qiang' (ghost hitting a wall)—getting disoriented and walking in circles.

Japan has long had the expression 'kitsune ni bakasareru,' meaning to be deceived or bewitched by a fox. Legendary foxes don't necessarily attack people directly, but are often described as causing confusion, making people go the wrong way, or repeatedly circling in the mountains.

A particularly strange case recorded in 1926 in Nara Prefecture and collected by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies tells of a girl around 10 years old who suddenly disappeared. Villagers suspected a fox's mischief and searched everywhere but couldn't find her. Finally, everyone returned home, only to discover the girl had reappeared in her original sleeping place.

Of course, we can't today conclude that foxes truly have the power to make people vanish, but such stories reflect one truth: when people lose their sense of direction in the mountains, or experience memory blanks and unexplainable disappearances, people in the past used familiar yōkai legends to make sense of these events.

Even more strikingly, in Japan, people searching for those who have undergone 'kamikakushi' also enter the mountains shouting names.

A classic scene in Taiwanese Moshen-ai stories involves someone suddenly disappearing after entering the mountains. Family members and villagers then enter the mountain area in groups, loudly calling the missing person's name, hoping to bring them back.

Academia Sinica's 'Yan Zhi You Wu' interviewed Lin Mei-rong, a folklorist who has long studied the Moshen-ai phenomenon. After compiling numerous local stories, she pointed out that 'loudly calling the name of someone taken by Moshen-ai' is a recurring motif in related legends.

Lin further explained from a folkloric perspective that a 'name' represents a person's identity in society; calling their name is like attempting to pull the missing person back from an unfamiliar, chaotic natural world into human society.

Interestingly, Japanese folk traditions also feature a highly similar method of searching for the missing. Records from Ishikawa Prefecture in 1929, collected by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, state that when someone is 'spirited away,' many people search by calling the missing person's name while lighting lamps and beating taiko drums. Local legends hold that foxes, tanuki, and tengu fear the sound of taiko drums.

Another record from Toyama Prefecture in 1922 notes that when searching for a child believed to have been taken by a tengu, people would go near large trees said to be tengu dwellings, calling the child's name while beating taiko drums and other instruments.

When these scenes are viewed together, the similarities are striking: someone disappears in the wilderness, villagers collectively enter the mountains, loudly call the missing person's name, and use loud noises in hopes of bringing the person back.

If you replace the tengu and foxes in Japanese stories with Taiwan's Moshen-ai, the plot easily feels familiar to Taiwanese readers.

Are tengu and foxes the Japanese version of Moshen-ai? Actually, they can't be equated directly.

However, similarity doesn't mean sameness. Taiwanese Moshen-ai, Japanese tengu, and foxes each have distinct cultural contexts, and there is currently insufficient evidence to prove a direct lineage between them.

Lin Mei-rong classifies Moshen-ai as a type of 'mountain spirit or water monster,' with related legends often involving shape-shifting, trickery, and luring people into the wild. Tengu are closely tied to Japanese mountain asceticism (Shugendō), while foxes have their own tradition of 'kitsune惑' (fox bewitchment). Therefore, the three cannot be directly considered the same yōkai; what is truly similar is the underlying narrative structure.

In certain parts of Japan, there are traditions of not looking back when encountering an Okuri-ookami on mountain paths, and when someone undergoes 'kamikakushi,' villagers even enter the mountains beating drums and calling names. In Taiwan, there is also a long-standing belief that one should not go deep into mountain forests alone, to avoid being 'led away' by Moshen-ai.

Different places have given different names to the unknown in the mountains. What has truly been passed down may not just be yōkai, but the enduring awe and fear humans have always felt toward mountain forests.

Sources:

International Research Center for Japanese Studies 'Database of Supernatural and Yōkai Traditions' This article's discussion of the 'don't look back' rule of the Okuri-ookami, tengu-related kamikakushi, fox bewitchment, and local traditions in Ishikawa and Toyama of calling names and beating taiko drums to search for the missing is primarily based on folk survey records collected in this database.

Kokugakuin University Digital Museum 'Encyclopedia of Shinto' The explanation of traditional Japanese 'views of the other world' and the relationship between mountains and the boundary between human and other worlds references the 'View of the other world' entries in this database.

Kotobank 'Kamikakushi,' 'Tengu' dictionary entries Compiled from Japanese dictionaries such as 'Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten,' 'Nihon Dai Hyakka Zensho,' and 'Sekai Dai Hyakka Jiten,' used for defining kamikakushi, tengu and disappearance legends, and possible real-world causes of kamikakushi.

Academia Sinica 'Yan Zhi You Wu'—'Moshen-ai, Ghost Stories, Seeing People's Joys and Sorrows' The characteristics of Taiwan's Moshen-ai, classification as mountain spirits, and folk motifs of disappearance and calling names are based on research and interviews with Lin Mei-rong, researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of Ethnology.

This article compares the narrative structures of Taiwan's Moshen-ai and Japanese legends of tengu, foxes, and kamikakushi, but does not claim a direct lineage between them, nor does it portray local folklore as a nationwide taboo in Japan.