ho-to-to-gi-su

Updated: May 16, 2025

But rarely, very rarely, a far stranger cry is heard in those trees at night, a voice as of one crying in pain the syllables 'ho-to-to-gi-su. The cry and the name of that which utters it are one and the same, hototogisu. It is a bird of which weird things are told; for they say it is not really a creature of this living world, but a night wanderer from the Land of Darkness.

Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan : Second Series