Byōbu-Nozoki (Screen-Peeker)Iconographic Tradition–Conforming Version

Centered on the commentary in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Hyakki Shūi, this reading emphasizes the habit of peering in from beyond the folding screen. Rather than causing harm directly, it primarily spies on hidden affairs. Some note that the image of lofty screens in Chinese classics shaped its formation, while in Japan it became linked to the belief that bedroom furnishings can accrue spirit, with a folding screen that has long reflected human lives aging into a yokai. It is not a fixed local deity but is understood as a type of haunted implement tale (tsukumogami).