The Japanese house bat (for some reason,“oil bat” - アブラコウモリ（油蝙蝠) - is a species of vesper bat, lil’ guys that mainly rely on vocally emitted echolocation to gobble up all of the bugs - including mosquitoes - in your neighborhood, and if you don’t think they’re cute, then you have no soul. They are migratory, following in winter insect populations south to the warmer weather of southern China and Taiwan, then, as as winter thaws, back to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. I always know it’s spring when the bats return: they like old buildings with openings to attics or rain gutters under which to roost, both of which my house offers. When I see them return, I know spring has come.
Which is why I was surprised today, only in late January, to see a bat launch itself from under my rain gutter. They usually don’t reappear until early March. That they’re returning so early means that the insects are doing so as well. Another presage of global warming. They are your friends, so take care of them.
Of course, they often featured in Yokai woodprints. I have no idea why this bat seems to be whipping two animals that have no business flying, but there must be a story behind it somewhere. - William