Mino-waraji is a tsukumogami—an animated household object—depicted by the Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien in Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. It appears as a composite creature with a straw raincoat (mino) for a torso and straw sandals (waraji) for legs, shouldering a hoe and emerging in a snow-laden bamboo grove. Rooted in the belief that old tools and rain gear can gain spirits over time, the image blends earlier portrayals of mino and waraji yokai found in Hyakki Yagyō picture scrolls and Tsukumogami emaki. Little is recorded about its behavior; it survives mainly as a symbolic figure.
Folklore & Legends
This is primarily an iconographic yokai with a clear source in Sekien’s print, and no specific oral tales or place-based legends are known. Under the tsukumogami concept, long-used raincoats and sandals acquire spirit after their service ends and roam at night. Later commentators sometimes read it as a symbol of agrarian grievances or misfortune, but no region-specific anecdotes are documented.
Yokai Cards2
Straw-Raincoat Sandals across multiple art-style decks
A reimagining of the straw raincoat and straw sandals yokai based on Toriyama Sekien’s imagery. The straw raincoat serves as a protective emblem akin to visiting-deity garb, while the sandals take on the role of roadside boundary charms. Weathered by long use and harsh storms, they are believed to have gained spiritual potency and slipped into the human world. The act of shouldering a hoe evokes farm labor and service to local land deities, and the snowy bamboo grove setting suggests purity and deep quiet. Specific deeds go unrecorded, but it was likely feared as creaking sandal steps at midnight or a walking cloak’s silhouette in a blizzard, with little emphasis on malice. An emblematic member of the early modern tsukumogami ensemble, it reflects reverence for the lifespan and toil of tools.
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 Iconographic Tradition Edition. The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
Love Yokai Type Test
The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for Iconographic Tradition Edition. The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
Meet your guardian yokai at the shrine
Draw an omikuji fortune and discover the yokai watching over you today.
