Mishige (飯笥)
Mishige or Mishige-Majimun is a kind of Fumo-gami which has been known in Okinawa Prefecture and is a kind of Majimun (the general name for devils in Okinawa and Amami Islands south of Kagoshima Prefecture).
Originally Mishige meant a rice paddle, which got old and changed to a Yokai (specter) called a Mishige.
At night it moves around and gets up to mischief, making noise and teasing people. Similarly there is a Nabige Yokai (dipper specter) among those specters to which eating utensils changed. It is said that sometimes eating utensils which have been thrown away become specters and begin to play at night, and music comes from the garbage at this time. Because of this kind of bizarrerie, it is said that old rice paddles and dippers should not be thrown away.
Tradition
At night a man who heard the sound of a musical instrument went out of his house to find young men and women playing in the square. Being lured by gaiety, he got into action with his cheeks covered, drinking and dancing to spend the whole night. At dawn the men and women went away, but he got tired and slept there. When he woke up, eating utensils such as rice paddles were scattered around him. The discarded eating utensils were playing at night.
A farmer found a cow crouching on a road, brought it to his own house, and put it into the cowshed. When feed was given, it ate well. Next morning when he looked into the cowshed, the cow had disappered and a rice paddle was placed on the top of the piled feed.
At night somebody knocked the door of a house. A resident of the house opened the door to find nobody, but instead he saw a rice peddler fallen on the ground.