Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki |
Toriyama Sekien’s Yokai of Rain, Darkness, and Dawn

Ōmagatoki (逢魔時) is a term that designates the dim twilight just before and after the sun sets as a "bad hour" when one is prone to encountering the uncanny. Rather than a single yōkai with a distinct form or will, it refers to the shifting boundary between day and night itself, when it becomes difficult to distinguish human faces or distant objects. The *Seisen-ban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten* (Concise Edition of the Comprehensive Dictionary of the Japanese Language) defines it as the dim hour of dusk, namely twilight. It is not a fixed timeframe of "from this hour to that hour," but rather shifts according to the season and location based on the time of sunset. The variable hour system (futei jihō) widely used during the Edo period also divided day and night based on sunrise and sunset, meaning Ōmagatoki cannot be uniformly converted to a modern time like 17:00–19:00 or exactly 18:00. There are multiple layers to its reading and written forms. Dictionaries list variations such as Ōmagatoki (大禍時 - Hour of Great Calamity), Ōmaji (大魔時 - Hour of the Great Demon), Ōmagatoki (逢魔時 - Hour of Meeting Demons), and Ōmōji (王莽時 - Hour of Wang Mang), recording phonetic variants like *ōmagatoki*, *ōmagadoki*, *ōmagatoki* (with different kanji), and *ōmadoki*. It is explained that, in addition to *Ōmagatoki* (大禍時) understood as the "time of great calamity," the perception of the sound *ga* as a grammatical particle and *ma* as "demon" (魔) gave rise to the spellings *Ōmaji* (大魔時) and *Ōmagatoki* (逢魔時, "meeting demons"). Hayashi Razan documented the "Hour of Wang Mang" theory, comparing the day to the Former Han dynasty, the night to the Later Han, and the twilight in between to Wang Mang's Xin dynasty; Toriyama Sekien later introduced this older theory as well. Rather than viewing one of these as the sole, fixed spelling established in ancient times, it aligns better with historical sources to see them as variant transcriptions where associations of calamity, demons, and historical figures were superimposed onto a pre-existing sound. While *tasogaredoki* (twilight) is a neutral term broadly indicating dusk, Ōmagatoki is unique in that it overlays this with a vigilance against disaster and the supernatural. The word *tasogare*, derived from "Who goes there?" (*taso kare*), and *kawataredoki*, derived from "Who is that?" (*kare wa tare*), also convey the sensation of finding it hard to identify others in the dim light. However, *kawataredoki* was used for both dawn and dusk, and today it tends to refer specifically to dawn, so it is not perfectly synonymous with Ōmagatoki. Furthermore, unlike the Hour of the Ox (*ushimitsu-doki*), which is a specific time deep in the night, the core of Ōmagatoki lies not in the "middle of the night" but in the brief boundary transitioning from day to night.

Powerful yokai with horns. Though fearsome in appearance, many are gentle at heart.

Sansei is a one-legged mountain entity said to inhabit the northern mountains of China, cited in the Japanese compendium Wakan Sansai Zue from earlier Chinese sources. Accounts vary on its height—about one shaku, or three to four shaku—and its single foot’s heel is set backward. It appears at mountain huts to steal salt and favors eating crabs and frogs. It attacks people at night but retreats if the name “Batsu” (the drought demon) is invoked. In Japan, Toriyama Sekien depicted it.

The suiko is a water-dwelling creature first recorded in Chinese materia medica. Roughly the size of a small child, it was said to be clad in hard scales and to bask with its carapace exposed on the sand in autumn. Writers gave it a tiger-like head, distinctive knees, and sharp claws. The Ming-dynasty *Honzō Kōmoku* (Compendium of Materia Medica) did much to spread its image, though the account itself reaches back to an older gazetteer, the *Xiangmian Ji*. The lore travelled to Japan through books during the Edo period, where it was often conflated with the kappa. Scholars, however, insisted that the two were "alike yet not the same" — strikingly similar, but distinct beasts — and recorded them separately.

A mind-reading yokai recorded in the Edo-period scroll Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. Said to dwell in the remote mountains of Hida and Mino, it appears like a dark-skinned, shaggy, ape-like creature that understands human speech and speaks aloud a person’s inner thoughts. It does not wish to harm people, but if threatened with death it flees first. The creature has been linked to the "kaku/jué" (玃) of Chinese lore and to local tales of mind-reading mountain beings.

Shuten-dōji is the central figure in medieval oni-slaying tales that pit an oni king, who carries people away from the capital, against warriors sent into the mountains by imperial command. The stories are set in the reign of Emperor Ichijō and include the historical commanders Minamoto no Yorimitsu and Fujiwara no Yasumasa, but they are not contemporary Heian-period records. The Important Cultural Property *Ōeyama Ekotoba*, held by the Itsuō Art Museum, is the oldest surviving picture scroll of the Ōeyama tradition; it was made in the fourteenth century, during the Northern and Southern Courts period. Reading the Heian setting separately from the work's medieval creation prevents the tale from being mistaken for a record of an actual bandit suppression. Instead, it reflects the world later audiences imagined through Heian warriors and an oni king. His name, too, has never had a single spelling. *Ōeyama Ekotoba* chiefly writes 酒天童子, and the dōji himself says that his retainers call him Shuten-dōji because of his deep love of drink. Other spellings include 酒伝童子 and 酒顛童子 (酒顚童子); 酒呑童子 is now the most widely used. The word *dōji* alone does not establish a particular age, hairstyle, or clerical status. In the Noh play *Ōeyama*, the first-half shite appears in the guise of a youth, while *Ōeyama Ekotoba* portrays his daytime form as a dignified figure about one *jō* tall. The tale broadly divides into a tradition that places the oni king at Ōeyama and another that places him at Mount Ibuki in Ōmi Province. The *Shuten-dōji Emaki* (酒伝童子絵巻) at the Suntory Museum of Art, made in 1522, is considered the oldest surviving example of the Mount Ibuki tradition. These are not simply the same story with one mountain name substituted for another: the cast of characters, the name of the sake, and the oni king's appearance and past all differ among copies. Accounts of Ōeyama, Mount Ibuki, Echigo, and Oinosaka therefore cannot be joined into one certain biography for a single Shuten-dōji. In the oldest text of the Ōeyama tradition, disappearances continue in the capital until Abe no Seimei's divination points to the oni king of Ōeyama. Imperial orders go to the two commanders Yorimitsu and Yasumasa, who head for the mountain with their retainers. Reducing the story to the later, familiar tale of Yorimitsu and his Four Heavenly Kings obscures the structure of the early copies. In the mountains the party receives yamabushi dress and special sake from manifestations of deities and buddhas, enters the oni castle, and joins the dōji's banquet. By day the oni king takes the form of a dōji about one *jō* tall, displaying dignity and wisdom; at night he becomes an oni roughly five *jō* tall. His head and torso are red, his left foot black, right hand yellow, right foot white, and left hand blue; he has fifteen eyes and five horns. Once he has grown drunk and fallen asleep, the divine manifestations hold him down and Yorimitsu, Yasumasa, and their followers cut off his head. The head still flies through the air and bites the three helmets Yorimitsu wears one over another. Shuten-dōji is not merely a straightforward evil oni overcome by drink. He receives guests as the master of a splendid oni castle and tells of his own wanderings, even as he uses his captives for food. Courtesy toward guests and cruelty, intelligence and an immense oni body, defeat and the flying head stand together in the same story. Noh, *otogi-zōshi*, picture scrolls, printed books, jōruri, and kabuki each circulated different images of Shuten-dōji. Toriyama Sekien also depicted Shuten-dōji, under the spelling 酒顛童子, in his 1779 *Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki*, placing the drunken, reclining dōji and other oni on a page of his yōkai picture book. Rather than a monster fixed in a single form, Shuten-dōji is one of Japan's best-known oni kings, retold through manuscripts, performing arts, and the memories of particular places.

Hashihime is a figure born from ancient water and land deities fused with beliefs in bridge guardians. Revered at old great bridges, she is known as a goddess or ogress. A shrine to her stands at Uji Bridge on the Uji River, with traditions also tied to Nagara Bridge and Karahashi at Seta. Taboos warn against praising other bridges while standing on a bridge, or singing songs of jealousy there. She appears in the Kokin Wakashū, and later lore recasts her as a woman transformed into a demon by jealousy.

Hannya is a Noh mask for a female demon: two horns, gold-colored eyes, fangs, and a wide, split mouth convey rage, while sorrow still lingers in the expression. In the Noh plays Aoi no Ue, Kurozuka, and Dojoji, a Hannya mask is used to bring to the stage a woman turned demon through jealousy or resentment, or the vengeful spirit of a woman. It is a type of mask, not the name of one distinct being such as Yuki-onna or Kappa. The Nohgaku Performers' Association names Hannya among the representative masks for vengeful spirits, whether of the living or the dead. Its expression is not fashioned from anger alone. A description of the "Omi-uchi" Hannya in the Tokyo National Museum explains that the horns, gold-colored eyes, fangs, and split mouth signify rage, while the inverted-V upper eyelids and the disordered strokes of hair across the forehead carry sadness. The mask is frightening and poignant at once because, even as it inclines toward demonhood, it never wholly loses the trace of a human face. The word hannya originally means Buddhist wisdom. In Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, the entry begins by calling hannya the name of a sutra, then tentatively suggests that the name for a mask depicting a woman turned demon may derive from the phrase “hannya-goe” in the Noh play Aoi no Ue. The claim that the mask was made by Hannya-bō does not appear in Sekien's commentary; it belongs to a separate tradition about the name's origin. Hannya has a place in yokai encyclopedias because Sekien presented it as an independent illustrated subject in his 1779 Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. A Noh mask can be worn for several different roles, but Sekien's book presents Hannya as the name of a marvel alongside oni, Hashihime, and Shuten Doji. Hannya has moved between several cultural layers: Noh mask, female-demon role, Edo-period yokai image, and modern mask iconography.

Temple Woodpecker is a sinister bird yokai that takes the form of a woodpecker and pecks at temple beams and doors, damaging sacred buildings. Illustrated by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, it is told as an ill omen that obstructs the Buddhist Law. Some say it is the transformed vengeful spirit of Mononobe no Moriya, targeting temples founded by Prince Shōtoku. Others equate its true form with the great spotted woodpecker; it appears with loud tapping and then vanishes.

A fearsome bird said to be the transformed spirit—or grudge—of Fujiwara no Sanekata, a mid-Heian poet. After his death, his vengeful spirit became a sparrow that entered the Seiryōden hall of the imperial palace and devoured the rice set on ceremonial trays. Called the “Court-Entering Sparrow” or “Sanekata Sparrow,” it was feared as an ominous intruder into the Inner Palace and blamed for ravaging crops, embodying Sanekata’s fixation on the capital and resentment over his demotion.

Tamamo-no-Mae is a beauty of unrivaled grace who, in the late Heian period, is said to have served the retired Emperor Toba. Her true form is held to be a nine-tailed fox, yet as a human, Tamamo-no-Mae has above all been remembered as a court lady of rare beauty and deep learning. Poetry and music were a given, but from Buddhist scripture to the old tales of India and China, she answered any question without hesitation, astonishing all at court. The name “Tamamo-no-Mae” carries a story of its own. One night, amid a banquet of poetry and music at the Seiryōden, a gust of wind snuffed out the lamps; in the darkness a dazzling light streamed from her body and lit the hall as bright as day. From this she came to be called “Tamamo-no-Mae,” meaning the lady of the jewel-like, glowing waterweed . Before that, it is said, she had been called Mikuzume. In time she drew all the emperor’s affection to herself, but when he fell ill from an unknown cause, her true nature began to be doubted.

A female yokai and castle deity said to dwell in the main keep of Himeji Castle. Early Edo怪談 depict it as a gender-shifting castle specter; later tradition fixed the image as a “princess.” Revered and feared as both guardian and avenger of the castle, bringing fortune or calamity according to the lord’s conduct. Its true nature varies by tale—an ancient fox, a castle god, a sacrificed woman, or the spirit of a long-departed noble lady. Also called Osakabe.

A nocturnal cursing ritual performed at the Hour of the Ox (around 1–3 a.m.). The practitioner nails a straw effigy modeled after the hated target to a shrine’s sacred tree, petitioning for a deadly curse. By the Edo period the rite had a fixed costume and toolkit: white funeral garb, an iron trivet (kanawa) with lit candles worn on the head, one-toothed clogs, a mirror, and five-inch nails. Completing seven consecutive nights was said to fulfill the vow. If witnessed, the spell fails; encountering a black ox promises success—if one mounts it. Scholars trace its roots to ancient doll-substitution curses and Onmyodo katashiro rites.

Shiranui is a mysterious light said to appear off the coast of Kyūshū, especially over the Yatsushiro and Ariake seas. On a calm night around the first day of the eighth lunar month, one or two 'parent fires' kindle offshore. They divide to either side and multiply until hundreds or thousands of lights stretch in a horizontal line. The display is difficult to see close to sea level but clear from higher ground, and the lights are said to recede when approached. Also called Thousand Lanterns or Dragon Lanterns, Shiranui was feared as a sign that fishers should not put to sea. It is now generally explained as an atmospheric optical phenomenon related to mirage formation.

Battlefield Will-o'-Wisp refers to ghost lights that gather over killing grounds where many fell. They drift softly, and in great numbers cast a pale glow across the fields. Said to be fires exuded by the grudges of fallen soldiers and horses, they are depicted in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki as flames rising from blood spilled on the earth. Reliable tales of harm are rare; witnesses are said to recite a Buddhist chant and quietly depart.

A nocturnal apparition in which a heron’s body appears to glow pale blue. Also called Goi no Hi and Goi no Hikari. Recorded in Edo-period picture books and essays, it was seen on moonlit and rainy nights. Often identified as the black-crowned night heron (goisagi); in flight it looked like blue flames, startling onlookers. Explanations include reflections from wet plumage or substances along the water’s edge, yet many locales remember it as a ghostly fire.

A type of onibi (will-o’-the-wisp) seen near rice field ridges, river embankments, and graveyards. A lantern-sized flame drifts about a meter above the ground and vanishes when approached. In Shikoku it’s often blamed on foxes or tanuki, with names and traits varying by region. Sometimes it appears in strings along night roads and is linked to ominous signs like sudden deaths or fevers, yet its true nature remains unknown.

Grave Fire is a type of ghostly flame that appears around cemeteries and old gorintō (five-ring pagoda gravestones). In Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, flames blaze from a timeworn gorintō with damaged Sanskrit seed syllables amid an overgrown burial ground. Some interpret the missing syllables as leaving worldly desires unsevered, which flare up as fire. Early modern ghost tales describe it as a phosphorescent flame arising from blood or fat seeping from corpses or graves, drifting and wavering at night.

A yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki: an old woman who blows out lights. She is said to snuff lanterns, andon lamps, and candle flames from a distance with a single puff, interpreted as an ominous, yin presence that abhors the cheerful, yang nature of fire. Oral accounts are scarce, and scholars often view the figure as largely Sekien’s invention. Later books and picture chapbooks show name variants (“Fukkeshi Baba,” “Fukikeshi Baba”) and link her to tales of lamps going out at parties or on night roads.

A yokai illustrated in the mid-Edo period by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. It appears as an infant that licks oil from household lamps. The motif draws on a local belief from Ōtsu in Ōmi: an oil seller who stole oil offered to a Jizō statue died and became a wandering fire. Sekien adapted that ghost-fire tale, embodying an obsession with oil in the form of a red baby.

Katawaguruma is a night apparition of a single ox-cart wheel wreathed in flames, racing down dark roads with a human face glaring from its hub. Recorded in early Edo-period kaidan and essays, it was feared to bring misfortune to those who saw it—and even to those who merely gossiped about it. Accounts differ on whether the face is male or female. Sightings are tied to Kyoto and Omi, and the creature appears in contemporary paintings. Scholars often discuss its connection to the wheel-demon Wanyūdō.

A yokai appearing as a flaming ox-cart wheel with the face of a giant monk-like ogre set in its hub. Said to steal the souls of onlookers. It can be warded off by posting a paper on the doorway reading “This is the village of Katsumo.” Illustrated by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, it is a key example in the lineage of wheel-yokai tales and is often discussed alongside Katawaguruma, with a common origin widely proposed.

Onmoraki is a monstrous bird found in old Chinese texts, said to arise from the qi that rises off a fresh corpse. It is black like a crane, its eyes gleam like lamplight, and it trembles its feathers while crying in a piercing voice. In Japan it appears in Edo-period picture scrolls and tales, often manifesting before monks who neglect their chanting. It came to be understood as an apparition tied to the unsettled breath of the unoffered dead, a warning emblem against lax funeral rites and monastic negligence.

Hitodama are small, floating balls of light seen at night, long interpreted as souls that have left the human body. Reports describe bluish-white, orange, or red hues, often trailing a tail and drifting low to the ground. While often confused with onibi or kitsunebi, hitodama specifically denote the luminous manifestation of a human soul and are linked to death and liminal moments. They appear frequently in classical literature, early modern essays, and regional lore, with sightings continuing into modern times.

Funayūrei are maritime apparitions formed from the spirits of people who died by drowning or shipwreck. Depending on the region, they may appear as ghosts, phantom boats, eerie lights, or dark figures resembling Umibōzu. They most often emerge on stormy or fogbound nights, when they try to sink a vessel by ladling seawater aboard or confuse its course until it runs aground. Local defenses include offering a ladle with its bottom removed, throwing rice balls or ash, or meeting the ghosts with an unwavering stare. Mōjabune, Bōko, and Ayakashi are among the names applied to such spirits. Toriyama Sekien also depicted Funayūrei in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki.

A monk-shaped yokai tied to toilet taboos. In Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki it is shown spewing a bird from its mouth, with the note that chanting “Gambari Nyūdō, hototogisu” on New Year’s Eve keeps it away. The belief links ominous cuckoo calls heard in the privy to the characters for kokkō (cuckoo) and the Chinese latrine deity Guo Deng. Local versions vary in name and behavior.

A page-boy–shaped yokai depicted in the Edo-period picture book Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. He’s shown wearing a Japanese paper umbrella with its main ribs removed over his head and holding a lantern. The notes liken him to a young attendant serving the rain deity (Ushi/Ame-no-shi), with a punning wordplay behind his name. He also appears in kibyōshi (yellow-backed comic books), often in a menial attendant role. He lacks strong ties to local folk traditions and is largely a literary-artistic invention.

A yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, said to preside over clear weather. It appears on sunny days and not in the rain. Beyond Sekien’s notes, verified folk reports are scarce and oral traditions remain uncertain. Scholars have linked it to teru-teru bōzu, but no definitive source confirms this origin. Its name is discussed in relation to regional weather-prayer terms like “hiyori-bōzu.”

A lady-in-waiting–type yokai seen in Edo-period monster paintings. In Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, she appears as a youthful court woman with ohaguro (toothed blackening), said to haunt a ruined old palace. The term originally referred to low-ranking young attendants serving at court or in aristocratic households, and was not a fixed monster name. Similar court-attendant figures appear across various Hyakki Yagyo picture scrolls; Sekien likely labeled that iconography as “Ao-nyōbō.” Her nature and origins are unknown.

A strongly imaginative yokai depicted in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki and Edo-period kibyōshi. As the name suggests, it appears as a courtesan whose entire body is shrouded in long hair; her face is hidden by hair, or in some readings, absent altogether. Considered a satirical presence in the pleasure quarters, the wordplay links the painted “makeup” of a courtesan with “apparition.” It lacks stable local folklore and is known mainly from printed sources.

Bone Woman is a skeletal female yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. In his notes, Sekien cites otogizōshi-style ghost tales in which a woman bearing a peony-patterned lantern visits her lover, drawing on the female specter from Asai Ryōi’s Otogibōko story “Botan Dōrō.” The image embodies a beauty who approaches a man but is in truth bare bones—a visualization of the uncanny where desire and death intersect.

The Nue is a figure shaped by the overlap of an ancient bird name, medieval courtly marvels and warrior tales, and later Noh drama and yōkai art. It is now best known as the monster with a monkey’s head, a tanuki’s body, tiger’s limbs, and a snake’s tail, which emerges from a black cloud over the palace at night and is brought down by Minamoto no Yorimasa. That familiar image, however, cannot be treated as the Nue’s one original form. The combination of body parts varies among textual traditions, and the word nue itself predates the monster: it first named a calling bird. The Yachihoko-no-kami song in Book One of the Kojiki, which includes the line “On the green mountain, the nue cries,” shows that nue was a bird name at least as early as antiquity. The passage is not describing the later composite monster. Modern dictionaries often identify the bird with White’s thrush, but it is more useful to begin by recognizing it as an old bird name than to force a poetic term into a one-to-one modern biological classification. In medieval tales, the Nue as a bird and the Nue as a strange monster appear alongside one another rather than in a simple earlier-and-later sequence. In the Yorimasa story in section 10-56 of Book Ten of Jikkinshō, “Matters in Which One Should Aspire to Accomplishment,” Yorimasa shoots at a Nue calling from the palace hall on a rainy night, judging it to be “a small bird even by day.” By contrast, National Archives material comparing Yorimasaki with an undated printed edition of The Tale of the Heike preserves accounts that describe the creature falling from a black cloud through a combination of monkey, tanuki, tiger, snake, and other animals. From an early period, Nue has been a marvel in which a bird name, an uncanny bird, and a composite beast converge. Later receptions deepened that convergence. In the Noh play Nue, the monster slain in the tale appears at Ashiya as the Nue’s departed spirit. It recounts the misfortune of being set adrift in a hollow boat and asks a monk to perform rites for it. From the late Edo period onward, yōkai paintings and warrior prints repeatedly reimagined Yorimasa, the black cloud, and the composite body. Nue is best read not as a single fixed creature, but as a name that has continued to gather together different texts, performing arts, images, and local traditions.

The Itsumade (以津真天) is a gigantic monster bird with a human-like face, a curved beak lined with saw-like teeth, a long serpentine body, and sharp sword-like spurs on its legs. Said to possess a wingspan of up to one *jō* six *shaku* (approximately 4.8 meters), it terrifies people by echoing its eerie cry of "Itsumade, itsumade" ("Until when? Until when?") from the night sky. The primary source of this yokai is an anecdote about an unnamed "monster bird" recorded in Volume 12, "The Matter of Hiroari Shooting the Monster Bird," of the pinnacle of war chronicles, the *Taiheiki* (established in the 14th century). According to the legend, in the autumn of the first year of the Kenmu era (1334), as an epidemic ravaged Heian-kyō (Kyoto) and claimed countless lives, this creature flew above the Shishinden (the Kyoto Imperial Palace) every night, letting out its ominous cry until it was brilliantly shot down by the master archer Oki no Jirōzaemon Hiroari. Crucially, in classical texts, this bird was consistently referred to only as a "monster bird" and lacked a specific proper name. It wasn't until the Edo period that the painter Toriyama Sekien included it in his *Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki* (1779), applying the kanji "以津真天" (Itsumade) to its cry, that it crystallized as a distinct named yokai for the first time. In modern yokai encyclopedias, it is often explained that it "appears beside corpses left abandoned due to war or famine, crying out in protest, 'Until when (will you leave them exposed to the elements)?'" However, this direct connection to "corpses" is absent from medieval and early modern literature; it is a later interpretation added in modern times that logically reinterprets the *Taiheiki*'s backdrop of a rampant epidemic.

A yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. His note states, “Jami belongs to the class of chimi,” presenting it as the malevolent vapors and wicked forces that pervade mountains and forests, or as a catch‑all for harmful demonic presences. Not a native Japanese creature, it visualizes an abstract malign entity found in Chinese writings. Its form is not fixed; it is linked to noxious airs and curses, bringing illness and delusion to humans.

Mōryō is a collective term for malevolent beings that dwell in mountains, rivers, plants, stones, and graveyards, often linked to water-born spirits. In Chinese classics it appears as wangliang or wuxiang, sometimes described as childlike figures with red-black skin, red eyes, and long ears. In Japan it was read as the water deity “mizuha” and later paired with chīmi (chimi) as a set. Mōryō are said to crave the livers of the dead and are associated with funerary disturbances and corpse-snatching apparitions.

Mujina primarily refers to the Asian badger, though depending on region and era it can be conflated with raccoon dogs (tanuki) or masked palm civets. Since antiquity it’s told as a trickster beast that beguiles travelers at night—making roads or rivers seem different, and altering the appearance of food or places. The Nihon Shoki records a mujina taking human form and singing, and from the Edo period onward it stands beside foxes and tanuki as a leading shapeshifter in art and tales. Scholarly identification varies by region.

Nobusuma is a small beast yōkai said to glide through mountains and fields after dark. Although its name contains the word *fusuma*—here meaning bedding—it belongs to a different tradition from the cloth yōkai Fusuma of Sado and Tosa. In early modern usage, *nobusuma* could also denote flying squirrels such as the musasabi and momonga. Their gliding membrane, stretched between the forelegs and hind legs, supplied the creature's defining image. Toriyama Sekien included Nobusuma in *Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki*, giving visual form to a membrane-winged beast of the wild. Later yōkai encyclopedias often describe it springing at travelers at night, smothering the face and blocking sight and breath, or even sucking blood. The essential distinction is that Nobusuma is not a piece of cloth that has learned to fly: it is a wild animal whose cloth-like membrane has become uncanny. Animal vocabulary, fear of the night wilderness, and stories of face-covering attacks converge in this gliding-beast yōkai. It also sits near Nodeppō, Momonjii, and momonga in the shifting vocabulary of mountain creatures and monsters. Because its terror begins with a real small animal dropping toward a human face, Nobusuma makes the border between fauna and yōkai unusually thin. Its setting is therefore best understood through Edo print culture together with a broader Japanese fear of nocturnal animals, rather than as the possession of one village alone.

In ancient records, tsuchigumo was a derogatory label for local powers who defied the imperial court—groups who hid in mountains and caves and resisted rule. Their name appears in the Nihon Shoki and various provincial Fudoki. From the medieval period, Noh drama and picture scrolls reimagined them as giant spider yokai, best known in tales where Minamoto no Yorimitsu (Raikō) slays the monster. Despite the image, they are not related to spiders in a biological sense.

A yokai resembling a large monkey said to appear in the mountains, often described as an aged monkey that has transformed. It possesses formidable strength and is known in many tales to attack people, especially abducting women. Across regions it is said to burst into loud laughter at the sight of humans; its long lips curl upward until they cover its eyes. Edo-period picture scrolls and encyclopedias depict it as big-bodied with black fur. Some explain the name as imitating its laugh, and it is sometimes confused with other mountain beings like yamawaro.

A female yokai illustrated by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, depicted with countless eyes embedded along her arms. She is said to have been a woman with a habit of stealing coins; because she constantly pilfered holed copper cash (torime), the spirits of those coins manifested as eyes on her limbs. Sekien cites a source titled Kankangai-shi, but that work is unverified and likely a playful pseudobibliographic joke. The name Dodomeki may be a wordplay tied to old nicknames for copper coins and to place-name spellings.

Shibiru-biru, commonly called Buru-buru, is a yokai personifying the omen of fear, depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. When a chill creeps in at the collar and gooseflesh prickles the nape at a sudden fright, it is said this spirit has attached itself. Also known as the Coward God (okubyō-gami) or Zozogami, it symbolizes how fear manifests as bodily sensation. Its form and provenance are undefined, resembling a deified concept of dread.

A house-dwelling yokai depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki: an ugly old woman with disheveled hair hanging upside down from the ceiling. She appears late at night, startling people but generally causing no direct harm. Some see her as a liminal being moving through the boundary of the ceiling; others view her as Sekien’s wordplay, riffing on the period phrase “to show the ceiling.”

The Great Tonsure is a yokai known only from Toriyama Sekien’s Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past, Continued. It is depicted as taller than a folding screen, wearing a chrysanthemum-patterned long-sleeved kimono, and sporting a smooth, bald head. The caption juxtaposes the youthful longevity of the “Chrysanthemum Boy” with the wizened look of old age, functioning as an allegory that satirizes both the courtesans’ child attendants (kamuro) in the pleasure quarters and elderly monks in mountain temples. It lacks its own folklore episodes and circulated mainly as a pictorial theme and metaphor.

A bizarre apparition in which an enormous woman’s head appears in the sky or at a house’s doorway. It is often shown with ohaguro—blackened teeth—suggesting a married woman. Toriyama Sekien included an image in his mid-Edo Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, where the head drifts in a rainy night sky. While Sekien’s rendering is considered satirical, anecdotes and essays from many regions report encounters with giant female heads, interpreted as vengeful spirits, lingering grudges, or foxes and badgers in disguise.

A yokai depicted in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki as an old man with a cane who appears out on the wild plain. Sekien left its true nature “unknown,” but noted it assumes the form of an elderly man in the open fields, approaches travelers, and those who encounter it fall ill. The name likely blends baby-talk terms like “momon-ga” and “gagoji,” and has been discussed in relation to momonji—words for flying squirrels or for wild game/meat. Its abilities and origins remain unclear in folklore.

Kinrei is the embodiment of the essence of gold, or a spirit symbolizing fortune and virtue, believed to appear as a sign to households that practice good deeds. Edo-period picture scrolls depict it as storehouses brimming with gold and silver—more an allegory of auspicious news than a tangible monster. Kintama, by contrast, is said to arrive as a glowing sphere or strange fire; welcoming it brings prosperity, but harming it invites decline. The two are sometimes conflated, though their characterizations differ slightly.

Amano-zako is a monstrous deity cited in an unspecified source quoted by the Edo natural history compendium Wakan Sansai Zue. Said to have taken shape from the fierce breath that Susanoo expelled from his body. Humanoid with beast-like traits, it has a high nose, long ears, and fangs. Its temper is violent; when defied, it rages and can hurl even mighty gods far away. It habitually contradicts things, linking it to the amanojaku, the contrary imp of Japanese lore.