A version based on Toriyama Sekien’s interpretation of the obi in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. Though an everyday garment, the obi was said to turn into a serpent at the threshold of sleep and dream. This draws on the Natural History note that sleeping on a sash brings dreams of snakes, a belief also known in Japan. Sekien further composed that the triple sash of a jealous woman coils into a sevenfold venomous snake, punning on the kinship of malice and serpent-body, and presenting a visual reading in which emotion is projected onto objects. In folk terms, it warns that keeping a sash by the pillow invites ominous dreams, admonishes jealousy, and entwines concepts of sleep, dreams, and taboo. Rather than a literal attacker, the Snake-Obi is a symbolic specter that mirrors the viewer’s heart and reminds proper handling of sashes and bedding within the home.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Yokai Type - Traditional Yokai
Category - Household Spirits
Rarity - Rare
Personality - an allegorical being that reflects human passions
Compatibility - appears readily when touched by jealousy or wicked thoughts
Abilities - induces snake dreams at the onset of sleepmanifests in forms that embody jealousy and ill intentdepicted as an obi that slithers and writhes like a serpent
Weaknesses - wanes when wicked thoughts are abandoned, appears less when the sash is respectfully folded and set apart
Habitat - indoors near clothing racks and chests, sleeping quarters, by the pillow
