If you’d like to join me and many others in painting a yokai a day this month, all you have to do is paint, draw, or create any yokai you like, and share it using the hashtag #ayokaiaday. There’s no set list of yokai you have to paint, but you’re free to browse yokai.com or any other yokai resource and choose your favorites.
Ase no mushi
汗の虫
Translation: sweat worms
There are two colors of ase no mushi: black ones and yellow ones. They live in the hearts of both men and women. No, that’s not a metaphor, they actually live inside of your heart.
There are two main symptoms that these worms inflict on their hosts. They make people feel hot and flushed, causing them want to flirt with each other. After that, the increased body temperature causes excessive sweating in both sexes.
Harikikigaki doesn’t list any ways to exterminate these mushi, so it may be a case where these are worms that are always inside of us, and which we must learn to control. It says that when these worms act up, if men and women remain calm, the ase no mushi will also calm down. This will then cause body temperatures to return to normal, and they will stop sweating.
I’ve often heard it said that love is like a drug, but this is the first time I’ve heard it described as an infectious parasite.
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