Cursed House Arc

Spanning volumes 4 through 7 and chapters 28 through 50, this is the manga's fourth arc and the fourth chapter of the Kintama Hunt Saga, sitting between the Serpo Arc and the Evil Eye Arc and adapted across episodes 11 through 17 of the anime. It introduces Jiji, Momo's childhood friend, whose family home in Byakuja Village hides a centuries-old curse. The arc debuts the anatomical model Taro and his love Hana, the subterranean Kito Family, the Mongolian Death Worm masquerading as a Tsuchinoko, and the Evil Eye, a yokai who becomes one of the series' most prominent figures.

Jiji moves in with the Ayase household while his parents recover in the hospital, igniting Okarun's jealousy once Seiko reveals Jiji was Momo's first love. Jiji explains he can now see spirits and that one has been haunting his mountain home. Because Seiko's powers only work within Kamikoshi City, the task of exorcising it falls to Momo. At school, a chase after an animated anatomical model leads the trio to Taro, who is reunited with the discarded model Hana. Seiko takes Hana in, Taro stays at the school, and the experience inspires Okarun to be bolder about his feelings for Momo. The group then sets out by train for Jiji's house.

While Momo visits the hot springs, Okarun and Jiji bond over soccer and a rivalry over who likes Momo more, then break open a wall to find a hidden room packed with talismans. The Kito Family, Jiji's landlords, arrives. The men ambush Momo at the springs but are crushed by collapsing walls, and Turbo Granny, who stowed away in Momo's bag, is found bathing. A shrine priest tells Momo the village's history of sacrificing humans to the Tsuchinoko to keep its volcano dormant. Returning, Momo finds Okarun and Jiji beaten and learns the Kito Family has fed humans to the worm for two centuries, intending the trio as the next offering. Both groups tumble into the sacrificial lair, where the Tsuchinoko, actually a Mongolian Death Worm, devours the Kitos and unleashes psychic waves driving Momo and Okarun toward suicide. The haunting spirit, the Evil Eye, appears and clashes with the worm's influence, snapping the two out of it.

Sympathizing with the Evil Eye after seeing its memories, Jiji agrees in his subconscious to become its playmate, which lets the yokai seize his body to try to wipe out humanity. The Evil Eye erects a barrier of vengeful grudges, drives off the worm, and battles Okarun, who launches Momo to the surface and traps the yokai inside its Cursed House before knocking it out with squat punches. Above ground, Momo sets the house ablaze and later destroys it with a thrown fire truck, exposing the worm to fatal sunlight. When the surviving Kitos blame her for the prophesied eruption, Momo grasps the legend's true meaning and turns the worm's corpse into a giant hose to cool the magma at the springs' fountain. Seiko arrives with the Dover Demon, Chiquitita, and Taro to seal the escaped Evil Eye inside the anatomical model, and Momo rescues Okarun and Turbo Granny from the lava-filled pit.

Back home, attempts to exorcise the Evil Eye from Jiji fail, until hot oden broth accidentally restores him. Seiko deduces that cold water unleashes the Evil Eye while hot water returns control to Jiji, and keeps Taro attached to him as a safeguard. Jiji tearfully reunites with his recovering parents, but the Kito matriarch Naki escapes arrest, sheds her human disguise to reveal her subterranean form, and vows revenge on Momo.

Okarun's jealousy over Jiji gradually softens into friendship, a dynamic that persists for the rest of the story, while Jiji begins ki training that proves vital against curses. Taro settles into school life and Hana becomes the Ayase residence's second lodger. Manjiro, the Tsuchinoko Shrine priest revealed as Seiko's pupil, joins the recurring cast and will later train Okarun with the Oni Club. The Evil Eye, born from a sacrificed child's spirit, remains sealed in Jiji and will repeatedly threaten the group before eventually fighting alongside them. The Family learns the cold-and-hot mechanism governing the curse, and the Kito Family, set up here as future antagonists for the Typhoon Human Arc, is mostly arrested save for Naki, who steals away with a Great Serpent egg. Jiji's parents recover and relocate to a new home.