Who Are the The Monster Mushrooms / The Giant Ogre Mushroom (Kyogen mushrooms)?
Mushrooms that multiply with every prayer
Kusabira
The Monster Mushrooms are the swarm of person-sized mushrooms in the kyogen play Kusabira. "Kusabira" is an old Japanese word for mushroom, and on stage several actors play them, taking on an umbrella-like shape.
They keep sprouting in a man's house, to his dismay, and the more the yamabushi he calls in prays, the more they multiply. Soon they are moving around and clinging to the man and the yamabushi, and near the end a large Giant Ogre Mushroom with its cap spread wide appears and drives the yamabushi off.
How the Giant Ogre Mushroom appears, and whether a Princess Mushroom in the form of a woman appears at all, varies by school and staging. The creepy, funny way the mushrooms gradually multiply makes this a play for children and adults alike.
