Yamanashiやまなし

The Embodiment of Beauty Pregnant with Roaring Flames. Konohanasakuyahime is not merely a "delicate and beautiful goddess." The myth of her willingly entering a burning delivery hut to clear her husband's doubts reveals an overwhelming pride and fierce passion (intense like volcanic magma) hidden within her. Her beauty is a fierce and dangerous one, shining only in extreme situations adjacent to death—much like cherry blossoms blooming on the slopes of an active volcano (Mount Fuji) that could erupt at any moment. The Ruler of the Boundary Between Life and Death (The Delivery Hut). In ancient Japan, "childbirth" was an extremely dangerous act adjacent to the impurity of death (a magical space of blood and fire). The story of Konohanasakuyahime giving birth to Hoderi-no-mikoto (Umisachihiko) and others in the flames is a metaphor for the victory of life force itself—bringing forth new life by overcoming the danger of death (fire). Consequently, she garnered fanatic devotion as the absolute "guardian deity of safe childbirth and child-rearing" from women striving to sustain life amidst harsh realities. Fuji Worship and the Salvation of the Common People. In the "Fuji-ko" faith popular during the Edo period, the worship of Konohanasakuyahime (Asama Okami) evolved into a massive folk religion encompassing not just safe mountain climbing, but everything from worldly benefits to posthumous salvation. It seems contradictory at first glance to install a goddess as the principal deity of Mount Fuji, which was originally closed to women (Nyonin Kinsei). However, this symbolizes the dynamism of Japanese religious history, where a harsh mountain of asceticism gradually transformed its nature into a mountain of affection embracing the common people (including women).

A figure centered on the monstrous crab legend of Chogenji at Manriki in Kai Province. Disguised as an itinerant monk, it comes to the temple at midnight and borrows Zen phrases, tossing hints like “freely side-walking” and “two legs eight legs” to suggest a crab while testing its counterpart’s wit. It retains human form until its identity is pierced, but when pressed with ritual implements or mantras it reveals its carapace and flees, said to span a two-ken square or reach four meters across. Local lore preserves place names like Crab-Chasing Slope and Crab Marsh, a holed “claw-mark” stone, and tales of thrown stones. Across regions the same tale type shares an empty temple, late night, Q and A, exposure of the true form, and retreat or slaying, with the kyogen play “Crab Yamabushi” often cited as an influence. Devotional aftertales may stress the ritual implements used in subduing it—vajra pestles or iron fans—and devotion to Kannon, though details vary. The version told from the Kyoho era onward forms today’s backbone, and a Meiji hanging scroll attests to the tale’s settlement. Stripped of later embellishment, it is a moral tale of a shape-shifting crab that tests a monk and yields to sacred power.

Amazake-babaa was told as a visitor who heralds the arrival of epidemics. She knocks at midnight and asks whether there is sweet sake; the very act is a test of taboo, and answering is understood as a conduit for misfortune. People hung apotropaic symbols—cedar sprigs, nandina, and chili peppers—at their gates and avoided replying. Across Edo, people visited images of an old woman said to calm coughs, linking petitions to folk belief. The tradition overlaps memories of smallpox outbreaks; some view her as a guise of the smallpox deity, while others absorbed the image of a peddler woman on cold nights, creating regional variation. The yokai is transmitted with the taboo structure of “answer and you fall ill,” accompanied by threshold-warding rites, and is positioned as a portent tale that signals the presence of disease.

A depiction of the hihi based on Edo-period images and folklore. Said to dwell in mountains, it is an aged monkey transformed into a giant, powerfully built being. Many regions tell that it bursts into loud laughter, and when its long upturned lips roll back to cover its eyes, it leaves an opening to strike. Tales include the abduction of women, bouts with woodcutters, and raising wind and storm to hurl people. Natural history compendia such as Wakan Sansai Zue report black hair, large size, and hearsay of human speech, though exact locales and physical evidence remain uncertain. Its name is commonly linked to its laugh. It is sometimes conflated with yama-warawa or monkey deities, but is often distinguished as an ape-shaped mountain monster.