Greeting yokai fans!

I have really fallen in love with this yokai over the research and painting it, just because it is so ridiculous. I think at some point I will have to revisit the Kujirazashi shinagawa baori and do some more of the yokai whales in that book.

It was a bit hard to figure out the second pun in this name; mainly because I am not a whale eater (I tried it once, it was disgusting). I had never heard of “kujira no hyakuhiro.” Neither had my wife, so she couldn’t figure out the joke either. But sometimes when you read something you just get the sense that there is something more to it… “namekujira no hyakuhiro” was just too specific and too weird to mention on its out without having some kind of secondary meaning.

Eventually after some searching around we found it. I can’t imagine many people eat whale intestines today, but in the Edo period I suspect it would have been a common enough dish that the readers of this book would have gotten the reference instantly and had a chuckle at the oh-so-stupid dad jokes within. Of course, now I can’t hear that phrase without rolling my eyes and laughing either.

Enjoy!

なめくじら

TRANSLATION: a portmanteau of slug and whale; slugwhale
HABITAT: homes and gardens; as a regular slug
DIET: leaves and plants

APPEARANCE: As its name implies, the namekujira is a very large slug.  Its body is described as reddish-brown in color, with a long stripe running down its back. From its head to its neck, it is covered in black spots.

BEHAVIOR: Namekujira live in gardens and behave just like ordinary slugs. It is their size that makes them so strange. They crawl across doors and fences, leaving behind enormous, silvery slime trails up to 100 hiro in length—almost 182 meters.

ORIGIN: Namekujira is described in the Kujirazashi shinagawa baori, a comical Edo-period book featuring different types of pun-based whale yōkai. Its name is a play on words, combining the words namekuji (slug) and kujira (whale). In addition to its name, this yōkai’s description contains one more pun. There is a dish made from whale intestines called kujira no hyakuhiro. The name literally means “whale’s 100 hiro,” which comes from the great length of the whale’s intestines. So the gag is that while kujira no hyakuhiro refers to a delicious meal, namekujira no hyakuhiro is just a 182 meter long slime trail.

Greetings yokai fans!

Finally I am happy to bring you the tomokazuki! This one took a bit longer that I had hoped, partially due to me being busy with the Cherry Blossom Festival, and partially because I struggled with the poses for a while. (It’s hard to get underwater poses!) But here it is, your deep-diving yokai, the tomokazuki!

トモカヅキ

ともかづき

TRANSLATION: together-diver; diving with
ALTERNATE NAMES: umiama
HABITAT: coastal areas where shellfish are found
DIET: unknown

APPEARANCE: Tomokazuki are aquatic yōkai who are found underwater and appear to ama, the deep-diving women who gather oysters, urchins, and other sea creatures. They appear on cloudy days. They are a kind of diving doppelganger; they take on the appearance of the ama who see them. The only way to tell them apart from actual women is the length of the headbands they wear; tomokazuki have much longer headbands.

INTERACTIONS: Tomokazuki appear to divers deep underwater. They beckon the divers closer to them, offering shellfish and sea urchins as a way to lure them deeper. They continue to lure the divers deeper and farther away from safety. Eventually the divers are either lured too deep or too far from the shore, and they drown.

In order to protect themselves from tomokazuki, superstitious ama will carry magic charms with them while diving; usually in the form of the seiman and dōman symbols on their headbands.

ORIGIN: One popular explanation among believers is that tomokazuki are the ghosts of drowned ama. Since they are only ever seen by ama deep under the water, belief in tomokazuki is not common. Most of the time, tales of tomokazuki encounters are written off as hallucinations or delirium brought on by the stresses of deep diving—high pressure, lack of oxygen, physical exhaustion, and the fear of being swept away.

In one story from Shizuoka, an ama and her husband took a boat out to sea to dive for shellfish. While deep underweater, the ama saw a tomokazuki and quickly surfaced to tell her husband. He mocked her for believing such stupid things, and ordered her to keep working. The ama dove back down as her husband commanded. She was never seen again.

In Fukui Prefecture there is yōkai called an umiama, which is very similar to a tomokazuki. When an ama dives down to the sea floor, the umiama surfaces. Then, when the ama surfaces, the umiama dives down to the sea floor. Because of this, it is very difficult to spot this yōkai. However, those unlucky few who do manage to see it become gravely ill shortly afterwards.

http://yokai.com/tomokazuki/

Greetings, yokai fans!

It’s April now, but here is March’s final yokai. I ended up getting bogged down in the line work, as I often do, because it had so many fun little details that I wanted to add. But the final turned out alright, I think.

More on April’s yokai coming soon…

http://yokai.com/kyoukotsu/

狂骨
きょうこつ

TRANSLATION: crazy bones
HABITAT: wells
DIET: none; it is powered solely by vengeance

APPEARANCE: Kyōkotsu is a ghostly, skeletal spirit which rises out of wells to scare people. It is wrapped in a ragged shroud, with only its bleached skull emerging from its tattered clothes.

BEHAVIOR: Kyōkotsu are formed from bones of skeletons which were improperly disposed of by being discarded down a well. The bones may come from a murder victim, or a suicide, or someone who died after accidentally falling into a well. The lack of a proper burial—and specifically the egregious disrespect shown by discarding bones in this manner—creates a powerful grudge against the living. This grudge transforms the deceased into a shiryō. Like other ghosts, they can pass this grudge on to those they come in contact with. A kyōkotsu lies at the bottom of its well until it is disturbed, at which point it rises up to curse those unfortunate enough to be using the well.

ORIGIN: Kyōkotsu was invented by Toriyama Sekien for his book Konjaku hyakki shūi. In his description, he writes that this yōkai’s name is the origin of the word kyōkotsu, which means fury and violence. While there is a word in a local dialect of Kanagawa which does match this description, there is no evidence actually linking it to this yōkai. It is more likely that Toriyama Sekien—who was fond of wordplay—actually created this yōkai based on words in local dialects and just made up a false etymology to make the story more interesting.

Greetings yokai fans! Today I introduce you to donotsura, a weird a wonderful yokai from the same picture scroll that brought us shiro ukari. It’s a short writeup, but it’s got an interesting origin nonetheless! I hope you enjoy it!

胴面
どうのつら

TRANSLATION: torso face
ALTERNATE NAMES: akahadaka
HABITAT: unknown
DIET: unknown

APPEARANCE: Dōnotsura’s body appears much like that of a human’s, except that it is missing everything from the neck up. Its extremely large facial features are prominently displayed on its torso, just as its name implies.

ORIGIN: Dōnotsura appears on yōkai picture scrolls, but only his name and illustration appear. Like many picture scroll yōkai, no stories exist explaining what it does or where it comes from. However, its most likely origin is as a play on words. There is an expression in Japanese—”dono tsura sagete“—which is used to scold a person who looks inappropriately calm when they should be ashamed of something they’ve done. The connotation of this idiom is to lower a mask over one’s face, as in, “How dare you come here wearing that face!”; however, taken literally it means to “lower a face,” just as this yōkai’s face has been lowered down to his torso.

http://yokai.com/dounotsura/

Good morning, yokai fans!

Today I bring you the finished painting and writeup for akateko. Enjoy!

赤手児

あかてこ

TRANSLATION: red child’s hand

HABITAT: Japanese honey locust (Gleditsia japonica) trees

DIET: unknown

APPEARANCE: The akateko appears—just as the name implies—as a red, disembodied hand belonging to a child. It is found hanging in Japanese honey locust trees.

INTERACTIONS: Akateko drops down from trees as people pass underneath them. Aside from giving its victims a nasty surprise and the general creepiness of a disembodied red child’s hand, it is not known for causing any great harm.

Some people have seen the figure of a furisode-wearing beautiful girl of 17 or 18 years standing underneath an akateko’s tree. Those who witness her are immediately struck with a powerful fever. It is not clear what relationship she has to the akateko, if she is part of the same apparition or another spirit entirely.

ORIGIN: The origin of akateko is usually given as a certain tree in front of an elementary school in the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. However, there are local versions of it in Fukushima and Kagawa Prefectures as well. In these prefectures, akateko sometimes work together with another yokai called aka ashi. They grab at the feet of pedestrians, causing them to stumble and fall. It has also been suggested that akateko and aka ashi are two forms of the same yokai.

http://yokai.com/akateko/

Greetings yokai fans!

Here is your last yokai of the month: shiro ukari!

白うかり

しろうかり

TRANSLATION: white floater

APPEARANCE: Shiro ukari is a ghost-like spirit with a very long tail. It is white, with large eyes that stare off into the distance as if lost in thought. It floats about in the air, aimlessly wandering about.

ORIGIN: Shiro ukari appears on a few Edo period scroll paintings, and nowhere else. It was invented by an artist rather than recorded from folklore. Aside from its name, nothing is written about it. Everything about it, including its behavior and its origin, is unknown and unexplained. However, its name may be a clue to its origin.

While it shiro ukari literally means “white floater,” both of these words carry a number of nuances which could refer to this spirit’s true nature. Shiro not only refers to the color white, but to a state of total innocence or naivety. Whereas ao (blue) is used in many yokai to refer to a novice or an apprentice, shiro can refer to a state of total, absolute naivete. It has a negative connotation, akin to a “fool” or a “country bumpkin” in English. The urban socialites of Edo looked down on the “shiro” people who lived in the rural areas outside of the capital. While not specifically stated, the vacant expression on this yōkai’s face could be an allusion to this alternate meaning of shiro.

Ukari comes from the word for floating, which has a number of different implications. The most literal meaning is to float about from place to place. There is also a nuance of absentmindedness or disconnect from others. Tourists who feel out of place in a strange city might be described as floating about in this way. It can also refer to merrymaking, particularly in a way that is disconnected with the real world. This is the same origin as the word ukiyo, which refers to the “floating world”—the urban, pleasure-seeking lifestyle of old Edo. In a spiritual sense, this word can also refer to spirits which have not been able to pass on to the next world due to the weight of their sins. They float about, but never ascend, and are doomed to haunt this world.

Perhaps shiro ukari is a pun describing the uncouth, naive rural bumpkins who Edo urbanites thought had no business being in their city. Their experience in the capital might be something like a wide-eyed ghost floating from place to place. Perhaps it is a yōkai which seeks out the impermanent pleasures of life just as the humans of old Edo did. Or perhaps it is the spirit of someone who is unable to ascend into the next world, and they are forced by the weight of their sins to float about and wander aimlessly for the rest of their existence.

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The tag cloud is almost finished, but I am still doing a bit of work on it. So it will be finished soon. If you guys have any other suggestions for milestone goals like that, definitely let me know!