Furari-bi (Wandering Flame)

foo-RAH-ree-bee

📖 Detailed Description

Based on Edo-period picture scrolls, this version standardizes Furari-bi as a bird-shaped eerie flame wreathed in fire. It behaves more like a phenomenon than a corporeal being, with sightings reported from dusk through midnight. Confirmed cases of causing harm are scarce, and it shares common will-o’-the-wisp traits such as vanishing when approached and reappearing when one retreats. In Toyama it is called “Burari-bi,” often explained as a ghostly fire born from grudges or the unclaimed dead, though interpretations vary by region. The avian visage in the iconography is ambivalent, serving as a symbolic sign of the soul’s metamorphosis.