Furaku-Furaku (The Dangling Lantern Spirit)Sekien Plate Standard

An arrangement of Furafurabu based on the depiction in Toriyama Sekien’s Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. The lantern is tied to bamboo, its torn paper resembling a mouth, tilting as it looms over the road. The scene evokes rice field ridges and scarecrows, and while the caption mentions “the lantern fire of Yamada,” it also muses that it might be foxfire. This yields competing readings—either a fox in disguise or a transformed implement—but since the volume files it among tool-spirits, understanding it as a tsukumogami is appropriate. The name varies between “Fufuraku” on the image and “Furakaku” in the catalog, though “Furafurabu” is generally accepted. No fixed local legends or concrete curse tales survive; it is received as a subtype of the generic lantern yōkai, a visual fright that startles travelers at night.