FOO-roo OOT-soh-boh
Their soul is listening — speak, and they will answer.
FOO-roo OOT-soh-boh
Furu-Utsubo is a tsukumogami—an animated household object—depicted by Toriyama Sekien in Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro as a quiver (utsubo) that has aged into a wandering, anthropomorphic being. The quiver, a back-worn case for arrows, is shown moving under its own power after long years of use. In his caption, Sekien alludes to the warriors Miura-no-suke and Kazusa-no-suke who shot the “field fox” of Nasu Moor, hinting that an old quiver of theirs may have transformed. The image follows the lineage of weapon-bearing object-spirits seen in Muromachi-period Hyakki Yagyō picture scrolls.
The figure is known chiefly from early modern painted sources, with no specific oral tales attached. Sekien’s note evokes the legend of Tamamo-no-Mae—the fox spirit slain on the Nasu Moor—and the archers Miura-no-suke and Kazusa-no-suke, suggesting the idea that timeworn martial gear can become a yokai. In modern commentary, Furu-Utsubo is read as a tsukumogami born from forgotten tools of past glory; some folkloric notes add that quivers made from animal materials like fur or feathers are prone to metamorphosis. No localized place traditions are recorded.
Tools and vessels used over long years are said to acquire spiritual life and transform when discarded and neglected, becoming beings known as tsukumogami. In the Muromachi-period "Tsukumogami Emaki", it was preached that tools transformed after a hundred years; the scroll depicted old implements, thrown away during house-cleaning, marching in a procession on the night of Setsubun holding grudges against humans. In the Edo period, Toriyama Sekien synthesized this worldview in his "Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro" (The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Demons), bestowing charming yokai forms upon individual objects such as biwa lutes, shamisen, koto, tea kettles, sutra scrolls, masks, and book carts, woven together with wordplay and historical anecdotes. Gathered here are the souls inhabiting tools, reflecting human sentiments—used, forgotten, yet impossible to fully discard.
Displaying the Maya calendar KINs that Furu-Utsubo (Aged Quiver Spirit) protects.
This yokai is included in the following collections:
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
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