Greetings yokai fans!
And Happy New Year!
It’s the end of the year, so I will soon be inundated with the traditional Japanese tasks of cleaning the entire house top to bottom, and drinking way too much sake while watching Kohaku uta gassen on TV with family. But before I could officially claim my vacation, I had one last yokai left for 2019. Well, two, actually!
Behold the oriental melon (aka muskmelon or makuwa melon) bakemono and the watermelon bakemono!
These guys were harder to research than I thought they would be. The biggest issue is that this one scroll is pretty much the only place they exist. They were clearly made up by Yosa Buson, but signs point to a strong possibility that he heard about them somewhere in some local folk tale. I dug around, but could not find anything about them specifically. But I did learn a lot about the history of melons in Japan!
Fortunately these yokai’s names are pretty specific as to where they come from; down to the neighborhood! While researching, I looked into “Yamashiro koma no watari,” where the makuwauri bakemono is from. Yamashiro is the old name for the area around Kyoto. Koma no watari implies a ferry crossing populated by Koreans (“Koma” is the same as in koma inu, and refers to an old Korean dynasty). There is a tiny neighborhood today in Kizugawa City called Yamashiro koma watari, which is where this yokai refers to. It was historically an area where Koreans settled. They brought with them their melon-raising techniques, as well as the sweet yellow melons that we know as oriental melons. The area is no longer known for melons, but at least the historical names remain.
The suika bakemono refers to Osaka Kizu, which today is part of Naniwa, Osaka. Of course, it’s all concrete jungle today, and there are no watermelons growing there. You may also recognize Kizu from Kizugawa City, which I just mentioned. Yes, it is the same river. If you look at this scroll as something of a journey, the final two pieces seem to be traveling from Kyoto, over the Kizu river, and finally ending up in Kizu, Osaka. What is the meaning of this?
It’s hard to say for sure, but in an old book about this scroll written in the 1920’s I found a clue. Yosa Buson, the author, was born in Tennoji, Osaka. This is right next to Naniwa, where the suika no Bakemono is from. In Buson’s time, Tennoji was well known for turnips. In fact, Buson’s pen name literally means “turnip village” (Bu – turnip, son – village). This may be going out on a limb here, but the book suggests that this may have been a playful joke by Buson. If you follow the route of the yokai on the scroll, it takes you to a makuwa melon village, then a watermelon village, and then ends. Could it have been something like a signature, or a subtle joke, or perhaps even an allusion to a nonexist yokai: the Turnip of Tennoji, aka Buson himself! Well, who knows what he really wanted to say, but it’s clear there is something subtle at play in his thinking.
Anyway, just the fact that these yokai exist cracks me up. They go along very well with the Sunamura no onryo (aka the pumpkin ghost) from 2018’s A-Yokai-A-Day. Believe it or not, while researching vegetable yokai I also found an old print of a corn-cob yokai visiting a yokai brothel and making fun of the rokurokubi working there! The most striking thing is that corn is of course a North American vegetable, which proves for sure that yokai can come from anywhere in the world.
Anyway, enough rambling about corny yokai. You guys wan’t to see juicy melons, don’t you!
Makuwa uri no bakemono
真桑瓜の化物
まくわうりのばけもの
TRANSLATION: oriental melon monster
APPEARANCE: Makuwauri no bakemono is a bizarre and mysterious yokai found in the Buson yōkai emaki. It looks like an oriental melon (Cucumis melo) with the body of a samurai sprouting from it.
ORIGIN: Buson yōkai emaki is a famous yōkai picture scroll painted by Yosa Buson, a poet and artist who lived from 1716 to 1784. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Edo Period. In the 1750’s, while studying painting at Kenshōji in Miyazu, Kyōto, Buson painted a scroll containing eight graffiti-like doodles of bizarre yōkai. His doodles are presented as pictures with names and no stories, so the true origin of these yōkai remains a mystery. They are believed to be based upon local legends that Buson picked during on his travels.
The illustration of this yōkai in Buson’s painting notes that it comes from the river ferry in what is today Yamashiro village in Kizugawa City, Kyōto. Whatever specific connection this yōkai had with the area is unfortunately lost. The region was historically famous for it’s melons, so it is only natural that it may have had melon yōkai as well.
Suika no bakemono
西瓜の化物
すいかのばけもの
TRANSLATION: watermelon monster
APPEARANCE: Suika no bakemono is a strange yōkai which looks like a samurai with a watermelon for a head. It appears in the Buson yōkai emaki.
ORIGIN: Buson yōkai emaki is a famous yōkai picture scroll painted by Yosa Buson, a poet and artist who lived from 1716 to 1784. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Edo Period. In the 1750’s, while studying painting at Kenshōji in Miyazu, Kyōto, Buson painted a scroll containing eight graffiti-like doodles of bizarre yōkai. His doodles are presented as pictures with names and no stories, so the true origin of these yōkai remains a mystery. They are believed to be based upon local legends that Buson picked during on his travels.
In his painting, Buson notes that this yōkai hails from Kizu, Ōsaka. Kizu was once a village in what is now now part of Naniwa Ward, Ōsaka. The place name still remains in a number of geographical features. Unfortunately whatever connection this yōkai had to that area is lost to time.
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Happy New Year everyone, and have a safe and fun holiday!
Thanks for your support in 2019! See you in 2020!
– Matt