Scary Urban Legends: Baku--The Dream Eater

Baku-san, come eat my dream.

Baku-san, come eat my dream.

Baku-san, come eat my dream.

Did it work? Did Baku-san eat away all my nightmares?

Legend has it that there was once a creature called Baku-san who was made up of 'leftover' animal parts. It has an elephant nose, rhinoceros eyes, a bear's body, tiger's feet and an oxen's tail.

This creature features in both Chinese and Japanese legends.

While in the Chinese legend, Baku was an animal hunted for its pelt to create a talisman that would protect the wearer from evil spirits, in the Japanese version, it was known as a dream-eater.

As in the Japanese legend, if a kid had a nightmare, they could call upon the creature and have it come and devour the dream.

But here's the catch, the Baku is a creature that has a voracious appetite and the nightmares must be very intense. If it's simply a tame nightmare, and the Baku is called upon to feed on it, chances are it might not be satisfied and stick around to feed on something else: dreams and hopes of a person.

It will siphon the joy and hope of a person bit by bit until the person becomes an empty shell with no dreams left.

What are we if not to dream and to live on hope?

So yes, this helper of kids can become a monster if we don't feed it enough nightmares.

It is perhaps better not to call upon the Baku if you can't feed it properly.

The legend of Baku has sparked many stories.