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.
Folklore & Legends
In Tokushima, many flames may appear at once, sometimes called tanuki-bi. In Settsu, Toriyama Sekien’s era source Shokoku Rijin-dan records tanuki fire accompanied by a human silhouette, with an unwitting passerby stopping for small talk. In Matsuzuka, Yamato Province, it’s known as Koemon-bi, said to skim low from grave to grave on rainy nights; the collection Toen Shōsetsu recounts Koemon encountering a strange fire and suffering misfortune when he tried to strike it. In Ōmi, it is also called Koemon-bi and feared as a flame born of resentment.
A regional catch-all name for ghostly lights about the size of a paper lantern. In some areas it is conflated with kitsune-bi and tanuki-bi, its name stemming from the idea of monsters lighting lanterns. It appears on rainy nights along riverbanks, dikes, and graveyards, drifting at a fixed height. Accounts vary by era and locale: vanishing when approached, splitting when struck, or marching in clusters. In folklore it portends untimely death or a curse and marks taboos along the roadside, anchoring tales that warn against pursuit or striking it. It appears in early modern essays and kaidan, sometimes gaining proper names (such as Koemon-bi) and lodging in local memory. Natural ignition and animal-origin theories coexist, and its true nature remains unsettled.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for Chochin-bi (Lantern-Flame, regional will-o’-the-wisp type). The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
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