Greetings yokai fans!
Today I present to you everybody’s favorite pervert yokai, the byobu nozoki! Well ok, maybe not everyone’s favorite… There are so many perverted yokai to choose from! But he’s a fun one nonetheless!
Careful eyes might recognize the motif on the byobu as Kawanabe Kyosai’s hyakki yagyo byobu. I was lucky enough to see this byobo last summer at a special Kawanabe Kyosai exhibit. It was gorgeous, and I wanted to include it as a small homage to one of the greatest yokai painters. I doubt too many people would actually have the courage to put up a yokai byobu in their house, but I would certainly put one up if I ever had the chance!
http://yokai.com/byoubunozoki/
屛風闚
びょうぶのぞき
TRANSLATION: folding screen peeper
HABITAT: wealthy homes
APPEARANCE: Byōbu nozoki is a depraved spirit which emerges from the decorative folding screens known as byōbu. It is very tall, stretching well over two meters (tall enough to peer over any sized folding screen). It’s body is long and lithe, and it wears white robes resembling those of a ghost. It has long black hair and blackened teeth. Despite the resemblance, byōbu nozoki it is not a yūrei, but is actually the tsukumogami of a folding screen.
INTERACTIONS: As its name suggests, a byōbu nozoki’s chief activity is leering over folding screens at the people on the other side—particularly if the people are engaged in romantic activities.
ORIGIN: Byōbu nozoki was invented by Toriyama Sekien for his book Konjaku hyakki shūi. According to him, this spirit manifests from a very old folding screen which has witnessed many years of sexual activity.
Sekien invented a fake history connecting it with Chinese history. Sekien describes the byōbu nozoki as tall enough to peer over a folding screen seven shaku (a unit of length approximately 30 cm) high. This recalls a story about the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang, in which he leaped over a 7 shaku tall byobu to escape an assassination attempt. This legend which would have been well known to his readers during the Edo period. With this reference, Sekien both invents a funny narrative and finds a way to connect this amusing yōkai with history, legitimizing it as more than something he just made up.