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Doro-danbō (Mud Rice-Field Wraith)

DOH-roh-dahn-BOH

Doro-danbō (Mud Rice-Field Wraith)

Doro-danbō (Mud Rice-Field Wraith)

Their soul is listening — speak, and they will answer.

Basic Description

A yokai illustrated by Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. It rises half-bodied from a muddy rice field, one-eyed with three fingers, and is said to appear at night crying, “Return the fields!” Beyond Sekien’s vignette, reliable early-modern attestations are scarce and concrete folk sources are thin. Later interpreters treated it as a moral emblem tied to farming virtue, diligence, and a warning against dissipation.

Folklore & Legends

Sekien’s note tells of an old man in the northern provinces who bought paddies for his descendants. After his spendthrift son sold them off, a black, one-eyed figure appeared nightly, jeering, “Return the fields!” No matching early-modern records are confirmed, and local traditions remain unclear. Since the Shōwa era, the tale has often been presented as an allegory admonishing neglect of farming and the selling of ancestral land.

Yokai Cards1

Doro-danbō (Mud Rice-Field Wraith) across multiple art-style decks

Card gallery

Detailed Analysis

This version adheres to Toriyama Sekien’s image and brief note, centering on a one-eyed, three-fingered figure rising upper-body first from a muddy paddy. It avoids expanding later folkloric claims and emphasizes allegory. It appears as a voice rebuking impiety and neglect of farming after fields are sold off, standing by the paddy ridge at night and repeating in a low voice, “Return the fields.” Given the scant early modern corroboration, this is a reconstruction mindful that Sekien may have intended wordplay and social satire, without asserting ties to specific places or people. Visual traits include a mud-smeared monk-like upper body, a single eye, a wide mouth, and three-fingered hands.

Character Profile

This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.

Rarity
Rare
Personality
relentless, mournful
Compatibility
at odds with the idle, conflicts with those who neglect their labor
Abilities
appears along paddy ridges at night, emerges camouflaged in mud, induces remorse through a repeated cry
Weaknesses
disappears at sunrise, rarely manifests when farming is rightly conducted
Habitat
paddy ridges, muddy rice fields, around irrigation channels

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