The story goes as follows: Long ago, a samurai was walking at night down the road to Kyōto, when he heard someone calling out for him to wait. "
Who's there?!" he asked nervously, only to turn around and find a man stripping off his clothes and pointing his bare buttocks at the flabbergasted traveler. A huge glittering eye then opened up where the strange man's anus should have been.
The shiri-me was so liked by the haiku poet and artist
Yosa Buson that he included it in many of his yōkai paintings.
From a distance, shiri-me appears to be a normal human being. When close enough, however, it becomes apparent that it is a yokai. It has no facial features, but located in its butt hole is a large eye which shines like lightning.
Shiri-me approaches travelers on the road late at night, looking like a man wearing a kimono. Once it has their attention, it asks them if they have a moment to spare. Before they can answer, the shiri-me drops its kimono to the ground and bends over, spreading its butt cheeks and revealing the giant, shining eye located inside of its butt hole.
Other than its very startling behavior, shiri-me does not do anything harmful. It appears to thrive solely on the joy of scaring people.
Although there are very few documented encounters, because of its alternate name (nuppori-bōzu) and its shocking behavior, it is very likely that Shiri-me is a close relative of the noppera-bō, another faceless ghost. In this case, shiri-me's true form may simply be a shapeshifted animal playing a practical joke on humans.
It is also apparent that the shiri-me might be a type a noppera-bo. Only it can give a double surprise, first showing the featureless face then bending over and exposing the eyeball butt. The shiri-me doesn't have any bad intentions or evil purpose. It just thinks it is fun to surprise people.
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