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
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.
The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for Sekien Iconography Conformant Edition. The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
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