🔤 Yokai by Kana

A strange entity from Ainu tradition; the term kaisei is said to mean “corpse” in Ainu. It wears a tattered attus (bark-fiber garment) and appears in vacant or old houses. While people sleep, it presses on the chest or throat, causing suffocation or a crushing heaviness. Its nature resembles an indoor household spirit tinged with the presence of the dead. Its exact identity and origins remain unclear.

Ao-andon is a yokai of the printed page, formed where the blue-paper lantern used in Hyakumonogatari gatherings meets the strange figure Toriyama Sekien drew in his early modern collection of yokai images. Its earliest documented named appearance is in the middle volume, "Mist," of Hyakki Yagyō Shūi, prefaced in 1781. The title slip calls the work Konjaku Hyakki Shūi, while its preface title gives Hyakki Shūi; the same work has come down under more than one title. Ao-andon occupies the right-hand page of a double-page spread and is an independent entry, with its own heading and explanatory note, separate from the Ameonna on the left. The device of telling ghost stories beside a lantern covered in blue paper appears in literature before Sekien. Asai Ryōi’s Otogibōko, book 13, "To Tell of the Strange Is to Invite the Strange," was first published in 1666. In the text of an edition published in 1699, a single lantern is covered in blue paper and fitted with one hundred wicks; one wick is removed after each tale. Yet that gathering is interrupted by a strange occurrence before it reaches a hundred stories, and it features neither a horned figure nor the yokai name Ao-andon. It is prehistory for the apparatus of Hyakumonogatari, not the first appearance of Ao-andon itself. Sekien’s note relates that when a lamp seems about to go out, then brightens again, and its shadows tremble and darken, something called Ao-andon may appear. It goes on to explain that people who hold Hyakumonogatari gatherings have long covered their lanterns in blue paper, and cautions that telling of demons in the night invites the strange. It says nothing of a hundredth tale, a final wick, total darkness, or an appearance that is inevitable. Accounts of Hyakumonogatari include strange events around the ninety-ninth tale, events after all one hundred tales have been told, and even stories that turn to laughter when a supposed monster proves to be a dog’s or a person’s leg. Nor is there evidence of a universal rule requiring participants to stop at ninety-nine. The figure in the illustration has long hair, two hornlike projections on its head, and darkly rendered teeth. Inside the lantern, whose front frame has been removed, are an oil dish and wicks; on the floor lie a box, papers, and slender objects that may suggest combs or hairpins. Sekien’s note does not identify them as love letters or sewing tools, however, and it tells no story of a jealous wife, a husband’s betrayal, or a vengeful grudge. Its personality, purpose, victims, attacks, speech, weaknesses, and means of exorcism are unknown. Later yokai dictionaries and creative works have portrayed Ao-andon as a demon woman who stands at the culmination of Hyakumonogatari, gathers fear, or judges ghost stories. Those images are a rich reception history generated by Sekien’s spare single page, but they must be read apart from the Edo-period note itself. The repeated incorporation of early modern yokai imagery into modern creative work is one reason Ao-andon has acquired further layers in each era. The historical record does not identify a specific place of origin, sighting, shrine, or rite, and Edo is not treated as the location of a regional tradition.

A nocturnal apparition in which a heron’s body appears to glow pale blue. Also called Goi no Hi and Goi no Hikari. Recorded in Edo-period picture books and essays, it was seen on moonlit and rainy nights. Often identified as the black-crowned night heron (goisagi); in flight it looked like blue flames, startling onlookers. Explanations include reflections from wet plumage or substances along the water’s edge, yet many locales remember it as a ghostly fire.

A lady-in-waiting–type yokai seen in Edo-period monster paintings. In Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, she appears as a youthful court woman with ohaguro (toothed blackening), said to haunt a ruined old palace. The term originally referred to low-ranking young attendants serving at court or in aristocratic households, and was not a fixed monster name. Similar court-attendant figures appear across various Hyakki Yagyo picture scrolls; Sekien likely labeled that iconography as “Ao-nyōbō.” Her nature and origins are unknown.

Aobōzu is a catch-all name recorded across Japan for several kinds of yokai; its appearance and nature vary by region. It is often described as a large monk-like figure, a blue-skinned priest, or a one-eyed monk. Toriyama Sekien depicts it in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō without commentary, leaving details uncertain. Traditions range widely, including animal shapeshifters, beings linked to mountain deities, and figures used to warn or discipline children.

Aka-ashi is a phenomenon said to cling to a traveler’s feet and hinder walking. When it shows itself, only a red foot juts out, often on mountain crossroads or lonely paths. In some regions it never takes shape, instead tangling the feet like cotton, causing fatigue or falls. It is sometimes paired with or considered akin to Akateko (“Red Hand”).

Akaei is a colossal ray recorded as Akaei no Uo, the 'red ray fish,' in the late Edo-period collection Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841). Sand accumulates on its back as it floats at the surface, making the creature large enough to be mistaken for an island. Sailors who approach or step ashore find it suddenly sinking beneath them, raising heavy seas that break ships and swallow people. The tale overlaps with mirages and castaway stories, and treats such uncanny encounters as anything but rare on the open ocean.

A mountain-and-field apparition from Kagase in today’s Ino, Kochi. Its hair blazes a sun-bright red, dazzling to the point that it is hard to look at. It walks on two legs, but its feet are hard to see as it slips through the grass. It is not known to attack people; those who meet it are often overwhelmed by its intense crimson radiance and lose sight of it. The name appears in late Edo to early Meiji yokai picture scrolls and local records.

Akagi Daimyojin is a mountain deity that represents the deification of Mount Akagi itself in the former Kozuke Province (present-day Gunma Prefecture). The caldera lakes at the summit, Lake Ono and Lake Kono, are revered as its physical embodiment (shintai). Since ancient times, it has been deeply worshipped as a god of the mountain, water, and agriculture. It is frequently identified with Toyoki-irihiko-no-mikoto, an early regional governor appearing in classical mythology, or with Oanamuchi-no-mikoto (Okuninushi). Concurrently, there exist traditions that revere it as the goddess "Akagi-hime," acting as a protector of women. With about three hundred branch shrines centered around the Kanto region, the grand head shrines of Akagi Shrine are said to be Miyosawa Akagi Shrine on the mountainside and Daido Akagi Shrine at the summit, preserving the widespread influence of the Akagi faith to this day. In the realm of folklore, Akagi Daimyojin is widely known for the "Battle of the Gods" (Shinsen), where it fought against the deity of Mount Futarasan in the neighboring Shimotsuke Province (present-day Tochigi Prefecture) over the territory of Lake Chuzenji, famously transforming into a giant centipede (O-mukade) during the conflict.

Akashi-sama is a vengeful ghost legend from Hodogaya Ward in Yokohama, dating to the late Edo period. Said to be the spirit of a feudal lord who went mad, it is also called Akashi Gozen. Parents warned children that Akashi-sama would appear if they wandered outside, especially at night, making it a cautionary apparition. Its specific form is unclear in most tellings; the name itself served as the object of fear in this local haunting.

A yokai name found in Edo-period picture scrolls and board games. It is typically depicted as a hairy face emerging from dark clouds, with a huge tongue and clawed hands. Full-body depictions and clear traits are not recorded. In Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō it appears above a sluice gate, but without commentary. The name also occurs in contemporary picture-sugoroku like Jikkai Sugoroku and in Hyakki Yagyō emaki. A similar motif titled “Red Mouth” appears in various scrolls. Scholars have suggested links to Onmyodo deities Akashita or the calendrical Akashita day, but no proof exists.

Akaname is a yokai said to appear in old bathhouses or abandoned bathrooms. It is usually depicted as an impish child with a long tongue, sneaking in during the night to lick the grime, mold, and scum stuck to tubs and walls. Although rarely described as harming humans directly, its very appearance was regarded as an omen of uncleanness and served as a cautionary tale to keep the bath area clean. Alternate names include Akaneburi and Aka-neburi.

Akamata and Kuromata are masked visiting deities that appear during the Harvest Festivals (held in the 5th to 6th lunar months) of the Yaeyama Islands. They take on a stout, dumpling-like shape entirely covered in thick vines. The red-masked Akamata is generally considered a male deity, while the black-masked Kuromata is seen as female, though the masks and configurations vary by region. In the Miyara district of Ishigaki Island, they are also known as the "Niroo Deities" and are said to visit from a bottomless cavern—the subterranean otherworld known as Niraikanai. They are entirely unrelated to the snake yokai "Akamata," which takes the form of a handsome man to visit young women nightly; rather, these are visiting deities of ritual, clad in grass garments. This is a highly secretive festival in which only qualified local residents may participate, and the full details are strictly kept from the public, with photography and speaking of the event strictly forbidden.

The Akamata is a supernatural snake deeply rooted in Okinawan folklore, said to take the form of a beautiful young man and visit a young woman each night. Based on the real-life *akamata* (a snake measuring around two meters that preys on the habu viper), tales of this yokai share the same structure as mainland Japan's Mount Miwa legend and other snake-bridegroom stories, becoming one of Okinawa's most well-known supernatural tales. In a narrative shared across the islands, a young woman discovers her nocturnal visitor's true identity by piercing the hem of his kimono with a threaded needle; the next morning, she follows the thread to a snake's den. The supernatural aura of the serpent and the motif of an otherworldly suitor visiting by night have been continually passed down in the humid climate of the southern islands.

The ghost story called Aka Manto has at least two distinct forms. One is an urban rumor that a "Red-Mantled Man" wandered Tokyo for about a month in spring 1939. In April that year, Sōichi Ōya published "The Sociology of Aka Manto: A Protest Against Print Journalism" in *Chūō Kōron*, discussing what made the rumor compelling. The other is the school-toilet story in which a child must choose a color. A recollection published by Miyoko Matsutani in 1987 records a tale said to date to around 1936 at Toyoshina Elementary School in Nagano: a man in a cloak stands at the toilet entrance and asks, "A red mantle or a blue mantle?" Choose red and he stabs you; choose blue and he drains your blood. This is a recollection recorded about half a century after the period it describes, not a document from 1936. Postwar collections show that the wording and choices changed by place and period. In Amagasaki, Hyōgo, in 1972, a toilet ghost asked, "Red paper or white paper?" and frightened younger pupils went to the toilet in a chain. Accounts collected from Tokyo middle-school students and published in 1986 include a pattern in which red leaves the victim bloodied, blue leaves the face blue after strangulation, and white brings safety, alongside one asking whether the listener would like to wear a red chanchanko. Other accounts use red, blue, and yellow, with yellow as the safe answer, or tell of children entering the toilet clutching yellow handkerchiefs. Even the questioner's appearance is not fixed. It may be a cloaked man at the entrance, a ghost, or only a voice from somewhere in a stall. The object offered changes among mantle, paper, hanten jacket, and chanchanko. Red readily evokes blood, and blue blood loss or a face turned blue by suffocation, but tellings in which white or yellow saves the listener mean that every answer is not inevitably fatal. The familiar image of a pursuer in a white mask was strengthened by modern visual works such as the 2019 game *Aka Manto* by Chilla's Art; it is not an appearance shared by every older collection. Aka Manto's core lies less in a fixed face or biography than in a short question posed in a place with little escape, where a chosen color becomes a bodily fate. Children shared not only frightening stalls and dangerous colors but safe answers and makeshift talismans, creating each school's own map of the story and its responses. The 1939 urban rumor and the toilet color-choice tale share a name and the color red, but no evidence directly connects their transmission. Aka Manto is best understood not as one monster's biography but as a sign linking several Shōwa-era rumors that changed their questions and colors as they were retold.

A haunt linked to a “ni-hachi” soba night stall said to appear near Minami-Warigesui in Edo’s Honjo district. The proprietor never showed himself, and the shop’s andon lantern stayed dark—yet anyone who lit it was later struck by misfortune. In other tellings the oil never ran out and the lantern burned all night. Rumored to be a tanuki’s trick, it survives as one of the Seven Wonders of Honjo.

A mysterious ghostly fire said to drift along rainy nights like a lantern. Recorded in late Edo essays such as Kansō Sadan and Shoshū Saiyakuki Shōroku as observed in Ise. Those who carelessly approach are struck by an illness like an epidemic. If encountered, one should lie flat and let it pass before fleeing. It hovers roughly 12 to 36 inches above the ground.

A strange phenomenon preserved at a shrine in Kamo Village, Awa Province. The entity is said to be hair kept as a sacred object inside a hemp bucket. When the deity’s heart is unsettled, the hair lengthens, pushes up the lid, and emerges. It can coil around people and squeeze with crushing force. Villagers reportedly warded it off by conducting proper rites to soothe the deity. The chief source is the old text Ashū Kiji Zatsuwa.

One of the Honjo Seven Wonders told in Edo. A giant, bristly foot bursts through a hatamoto mansion’s ceiling as a voice commands, “Wash the foot.” If obeyed, the foot withdraws quietly; if ignored, it stomps through the ceiling in a violent rampage. Its identity is unknown. In some versions the haunting ceases when the mansion changes owners; in others, only a woman’s washing can appease it. Besides causing harm, it is also said to have restrained thieves, giving it a protective aspect.

A paired legend of extraordinary people: the Ashinaga, whose legs are preternaturally long, and the Tenaga, whose arms are extraordinarily long. Their earliest roots lie in accounts of long-legged and long-armed peoples found in ancient geographic treatises. They are recorded as “Long Legs” and “Long Arms” in the Chinese Sancai Tuhui and Japan’s Wakan Sansai Zue. At sea, the long-legged carrier bears the long-armed companion so the latter can gather catch in shallow waters—a scene often depicted in paintings. In Japan the motif entered tales and humorous illustrations.

A yokai that washes red beans at streams late at night, echoing with shoki-shoki or zaku-zaku sounds. It appears near human settlements, blending into the sound of running water. Descriptions vary: a small, wizened elder or, at times, a child. Rather than direct attacks, it deceives with its presence, luring people into slipping. It appears in Edo-period strange tales and picture scrolls, with some accounts noting its habit of counting beans with exactness.

Atakemaru was a massive warship built in the early Edo period as a shogunal flagship. Its imposing presence and famed grandeur led people to regard the vessel’s name as that of a haunted object, a ship imbued with spirit. With a blend of Japanese and Western design and lavish ornamentation, it became a celebrated Edo sight. After its dismantling, rumors spread that the ship’s “soul” bore a grudge. Specific hauntings vary by locale and remain uncertain.

Atago-san Tarōbō is a great tengu enthroned on Mt. Atago in Yamashiro Province, the supreme commander who governs the tengu of every province and, as the foremost of the forty-eight tengu, is hailed as "the greatest tengu in all Japan." He is also known by the name Eijutsu Tarō. Leading a retinue of crow-tengu (karasu-tengu) and commanding such lesser lords as Hira-san Jirōbō, he has long been cast as the sovereign of the tengu realm. His name appears early in the Kamakura-period war chronicle the Genpei Jōsuiki, Book Eight, which explains that Tarōbō was in truth Kakimoto no Ki Sōjō—that is, the monk Shinzei, a senior disciple who had inherited Kūkai's secret rites—fallen into a tengu through his arrogance. Mt. Atago was also a sacred mountain warding off fire and theft, and through syncretism with the cult of the Atago Gongen, whose original Buddhist form is Shōgun Jizō, Tarōbō came to be spoken of as a thaumaturge who averts conflagration and bestows martial fortune.

Akki is a collective term for demonlike beings in Japan, shaped by Buddhist and Onmyodo ideas, blamed for calamities and disease. The name personifies external misfortunes—epidemics, famine, warfare—and is often paired with terms like jaka (evil spirits) or akuma (devils). Akki are frequent targets of exorcistic rites in temples, shrines, and folk festivals, and appear in Buddhist art where the Four Heavenly Kings trample subjugated imps. Their appearance and traits vary widely by era and region.