The Dōjōji BellSekien Zue – The Dōjōji Bell

An iconographic reading of the Dōjōji bell as depicted in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. While a note alludes to a variant in which the woman, transformed into a serpent, coils around the bell hiding Anchin and heats it until it melts into scalding liquid, hearsay also holds that the bell itself survived in historical record. Its “yokai nature” here is less an ensouled object than a visualization of folk belief in obsession possessing a vessel and causing anomalies. It represents Edo-period reception where Noh, sekkyō, and engi traditions intermingle.

This yokai is included in the following collections:

Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (Later Gleanings of a Hundred Ghosts)

A 1781 yokai picture book by Toriyama Sekien in the Hyakki series, pairing each yokai with brief notes.

カスタム

今昔百鬼拾遺鳥山石燕

Yokai with similar personality and characteristics to Sekien Zue – The Dōjōji Bell

Iso-onna

The Embracing Woman of Kakara Island (Daki)

94%

Compatibility

Sanmai Tarō

Zammai Taro (Folkloric Type)

93%

Compatibility

Tesso

Edo Picture-Book Standard, Traditional Iconography

92%

Compatibility

Yokai with opposite personality and characteristics to Sekien Zue – The Dōjōji Bell

Hotei

Incarnation of Maitreya, the Laughing Monk, Hotei

53%

Compatibility

Fukurokuju

Three-Stars-in-One Long-Headed Deity, Fukurokuju

56%

Compatibility

Ebisu

Ebisu

59%

Compatibility