Kuroki shibugami no gotoki mono is not a proper name, but a description of a large, black, aerial creature that descended from the sky to attack a group of people in 1726. It floated down on top of them, crushing them with its enormous body and biting them with its sharp beak. Its body was flat and wide, covering an area about eight tatami mats in size, and resembled an enormous sheet of shibugami — a type of paper coated with astringent persimmon juice which gives it a dark color and a rough, durable texture. It had a beaked face at one end and a tiny tail at the other.

The flesh of the kuroki shibugami no gotoki mono has extraordinarily rare flavor, as well as powerful medicinal properties. It cures infertility in women who eat it, and provides immediate relief for people suffering from colic or tuberculosis.

Little is known about this yōkai’s nature, as its only known description — taken from the Chikuzen Bakemono Emaki, an illustrated yōkai scroll from the Edo period — was limited to the account of its attack:

In 1726 in a placed called Koshinogaya in Hanagata Village, Tanba Province (present-day Fukuchiyama, Kyōto), something like a large sheet of dark paper floated lightly down from the sky and landed upon four grass cutters who were exhausted and were taking a nap. It enveloped them and pinned them down, biting one of them on the shoulder. Three of the people managed to escape. They beat the creature with sticks and slashed at it with their sickles until the fourth person was able to slip free — although he was too badly wounded to fight back. Four other people happened to pass by at this time, and they helped the men subdue the beast. They managed to capture it alive, but it was too heavy for them to carry on their own, so one man ran into town to fetch help. A crowd of people came and they managed to carry the beast back to town.

The monster was displayed as a sideshow spectacle for some time, and it brought in a large amount of money. Afterwards, it died. The villagers discussed what to do, and they decided to try eating it. Its flavor was extraordinarily rare, and it had miraculous healing effects on those who ate it. One woman who was childless found herself able to conceive, and others suffering from colic or tuberculosis found themselves cured before they knew it. Everyone who had been too afraid to eat the creature immediately regretted it. Word spread far and wide, and people came from all over offering to pay any price to eat some of the creature. But it was too late — the flesh hadn’t been pickled in salt or otherwise preserved, so they had to return empty-handed.