Momonji (the Hundred-Old Man)Iconographic and Textual Standard (Sekien Line)

Based on Toriyama Sekien’s image and notes, this version frames the entity as an old man–shaped specter appearing on open fields at midnight. Its name is taken as a blended form of child language like “momon-ga” and “gagoji,” embodying generalized fear of monsters. The belief that witnesses fall ill aligns with older notions that contact with the uncanny brings impurity and sickness, with no concrete acts of harm described. Early modern taboos against eating game and the euphemism “momonjii” may have encouraged its visualization through name association. Later readings place it as dwelling in mountains yet appearing at street corners to startle people, or as the city-going form of the nobusuma, but primary tradition is scant and no broad folktale type is attested. Accordingly, this version treats specifics as unclear, emphasizing its scenic traits—encounters on nighttime fields, fog, and wind—and its feared power to bring illness.

This yokai is included in the following collections:

Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki

Published in 1779, Toriyama Sekien’s sequel to Gazu Hyakki Yagyō adds notes to each yokai in three volumes: Rain, Dusk, and Dawn.

テーマ別

今昔画図続百鬼鳥山石燕

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