浮世絵

Karakasa-kozouKAH-rah-KAH-sah koh-ZOH

An old torn umbrella bounds on one leg between a blue vortex and banks of gold cloud. A red tongue swings below its single eye, with thin arms reaching through the exposed ribs. Karakasa-kozō is the familiar tsukumogami of a discarded umbrella. Few traditions give it grave powers; its finest performance is the single heartbeat it steals from someone walking home at night.

Ittan-Momenittan momen

Above a sea still holding the sunset, a long strip of white cloth twists through the air. Two red eyes lead the way as its frayed end sweeps spray and storm cloud into its wake. Ittan-momen is the night-flying cloth spirit of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima. It descends without a sound to cover a traveler’s face and coil around the neck. Once you spot the white shape, it is already more than wind.

Ushi-oniushi-oni

A red-black bulk drives through the surf, lowering bull horns and fangs. Spider-like legs stamp through the curling waves and seem to shove even the clouds aside. Ushi-oni was feared along western Japan’s shores and pools as a savage man-eater. Yet in Uwajima festivals, that same terrifying force is paraded through town to drive calamity away.

BakotsuBakotsu

Against indigo waves and ash-grey clouds, a horse skeleton stands upright in tattered robes. Its hollow sockets and bare ribs shine whiter than the crests below. Bakotsu appears in the Tosa Obake Zōshi as the bones of a horse killed in a fire. It does not so much attack as embody a life left without mourning.