A-Yokai-A-Day: Yosuzume | 妖怪シリーズ:夜雀

Today’s yokai comes by request: the yosuzume! In any case, it’s a very interested yokai that has a connection with another yokai we will look at later this week; and on top of that, it’s a bird yokai, and I am a huge bird lover! | 今日の妖怪もリクエストされたものです。展示会の間からこれまでに本当に沢山のリクエストを頂いていて、出来る限り全てのリクエストに応えたいと思っています。しかしながら生活環境が一変して間もないため、なかなか全てのリクエストにお応えして新しい妖怪を出すのが時間の関係で難しくなっています。でも楽しみに待っていて下さっている皆さんのため、一生懸命描いてゆきますので、これからもどうぞよろしくお願いします。

さて、今日の妖怪の夜雀ですが、この妖怪は後ほど描く予定である妖怪と関係のあるものでとても興味深いです。そして何より、私は鳥が大好きなのでこの鳥の妖怪を描くのはとても楽しかったです。

Yosuzume

Yosuzume (夜雀)

Yosuzume is a relatively obscure yokai from Kochi and Ehime prefectures on the island of Shikoku. They also appear in nearby prefectures on Honshu, such as Aichi and Wakayama. The name is a combination of night (yoru, 夜) and sparrow (suzume, 雀), and just like it sounds, the yosuzume is a kind of sparrow that appears at night time. They appear at night on remote mountain passes and roads, swirling around travelers in a creepy swarm like something straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

By themselves they don’t do any particular harm, but they are a sign of very bad luck and are thought to bring terrible evil to those whom they swarm around. Because of this, the locals of these areas have superstitious chants which one is supposed to say at night to keep the yosuzume away. Roughly translated, one of them goes, “Chi, chi, chi calls the bird, maybe it wants a branch; if it does, hit it with one.” Another well-known one goes, “Chi, chi, chi calls the bird, please blow soon, divine wind of Ise.”

Conversely, in some areas, the presence of yosuzume is not seen as a bad omen, but as a warning call that an okuri-inu (another yokai which we will look at later this week) is nearby. This was a mixed blessing, as an okuri-inu would keep wolves and other bakemono, or monsters (including yokai), away from the road, and thus travelers would be safe; however, as we’ll see, the okuri-inu has its own dangers. For this reason it is also known as the okuri-suzume (送り雀), and its call serves as a helpful reminder to travelers to watch their footing on the dangerous mountain paths and to not fall down.

In some areas, they are also known as tamoto-suzume (袂雀), or “sleeve sparrows”, and similarly their appearance was a warning sign that wolves, wild dogs, or other yokai were nearby. Their call is frequently mysteriously only heard by a single individual, even when traveling in groups. It was considered very bad luck if a tamoto-suzume should jump into your sleeve while walking, and so travelers would hold their sleeves tightly shut when traveling in areas inhabited by these birds.


Are you interested in yokai? Can’t get enough of strange Japanese culture? Then you should check out my book, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, on Amazon.com and learn the story behind over one hundred of these bizarre monsters! |

Yosuzume

Yosuzume (夜雀)

夜雀は、愛媛県,高知県に伝わる定義が曖昧な妖怪である。愛知県や和歌山県など四国地方付近の本州にも現れる事があるという。その名の示す通り夜に現れる雀と伝えられており、人気のない山道に気味の悪い大群となって道行く人にまとわりつくのだそうだ。まるでAlfred Hitchcock の映画のような話である。

夜雀自体は特別に人を傷つける事はないが災いをもたらすものと考えられており、これに憑かれると不吉な事が起きると言われている。そのため、その地域では夜雀を避ける呪文(「チッチッチと鳴く鳥を(は)はよ吹き給え伊勢の神風」,「チッチッチと鳴く鳥はシチギの棒が恋しいか、恋しくばパンと一撃ち」)が伝えられているという。

ある地方ではこれとは逆に、夜雀は送り犬(後日紹介するまた別の妖怪。)が出現する事を知らせてくれる存在であるという。この話は少し複雑になっており、送り犬は狼や化け物、他の妖(妖怪を含む)から身を守ってくれる存在でもあるためついていれば旅人は安全であるといわれるが、しかしまた送り犬それ自体が危険な存在でもあるというのである。この話では夜雀は送り雀と呼ばれており、旅人がその危険な山道で転んだりしないよう注意を喚起してくれる存在なのである。

また他の地方では異なった言い伝えがあり、袂雀(たもとすずめ)と呼ばれるものがある。こちらも狼や野犬、もしくは他の妖怪が来る前触れであるとされているが、この雀の鳴き声は他の同行者には聞こえずに憑かれた人間ただ一人なのだという。この袂雀が袂に入る事は不吉であるとされているため、旅人は袂を握りしめて夜道を歩かなくてはいけないのだという。


他の妖怪にも興味をもっていただけたなら、是非アマゾンから「The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons(百鬼夜行)」をどうぞ!

3 thoughts on “A-Yokai-A-Day: Yosuzume | 妖怪シリーズ:夜雀

  1. Whoo! And there it is! I’ve been looking forward to this one so much. This kinda explains why I’ve never found much information about it, none of the tales of it actually go into that much detail, do they? Nevertheless, I’m glad I finally got to see this entry.

  2. Yes, there aren’t really any long stories about it — just short folk superstitions. Many yokai are like that, and you have to comb through a number of one or two sentence descriptions to get an accurate picture.

  3. You forgot to include that the Yosuzume’s feathers are said to slip into a travelers eyes and cause blindness

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *