You know how most people are terrified of ghosts, demons, or the occasional cursed doll? Well, Japan decided that wasn’t quite unsettling enough and gave us Sagari—a lovely little yokai that manifests as a floating, severed horse head dangling from a tree.

Today, we will explore this horse head yokai that’s been terrifying people until today.

Sagari (さがり) is a Japanese yokai, allegedly sighted in Okayama and Kumamoto prefectures.

It is like what you get when you mix the horror of a horse head and serve it under a tree. According to folklore, this delightful yokai is born from the souls of horses who’ve died in agony.

Sagari doesn’t go galloping off into the great beyond like some majestic steed—no, no. Instead, it decides to hover about in trees, especially the ones conveniently located by lonely country roads. And to make things extra festive, it lets out groaning, sorrowful cries just to ensure you don’t sleep that night.

The legend of this yokai is particularly well-known in Okayama Prefecture. Sagari seems to be what happens when the countryside gets too quiet, and people start seeing things in the trees.

In Kumamoto, there were reports of horse heads hanging from persimmon and enoki trees, and it was said that anyone who saw them would fall ill with a fever, causing them to be feared by the people.

It’s said that if a horse dies in pain or distress—especially near a tree—its spirit can linger. Rather than reincarnating as a butterfly or something poetic, it becomes a floating, groaning horse head.

While the standard Sagari sticks to its floating-head routine, some sources hint at variations. One particularly cheery take likens Sagari’s haunting to that of a vengeful spirit—a bit like an Onryo.

It’s also worth noting the clever way this yokai fuses Shinto reverence for nature with a horror-movie sense of spectacle. Trees have long been sacred in Japanese culture and believed to have spirits dwell in it. Apparently, that includes trees with the horse head.

<–coming soon!–>

Sagari—Because Even Horses Deserve a Good Haunting

In a sea of Japanese yokai and spirits, Sagari stands out by being utterly absurd and genuinely terrifying at the same time.

So next time you’re strolling through rural Japan and hear a low groan of a horse from above—don’t look up. Just keep walking…

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