Akazashita is a rare case where imagery precedes textual records. Its core features are a colossal tongue thrusting from black clouds and a bestial face. Toriyama Sekien placed this figure over a sluice gate, and later scholars offered symbolic readings drawing on notions of filth such as scum and grime and on proverbs that cast the mouth and tongue as gates of calamity, but Sekien left no notes. In many early modern sources the sluice gate is absent, and the name wavers between Akazashita and Akakuchi. Links to the Onmyodo guardian name Akazashita-shin of the Grand Duke direction or to the Rokuyo day Akakuchi have been noted but cannot be firmly genealogized. Since the Showa era, fable-like explanations and local tales have spread, yet statements beyond the base sources should be avoided.