The earliest visual depictions of Nurarihyon are found in mid-Edo period yokai scrolls, such as Suushi Sawaki's *Hyakkai Zukan* [2] (1737) and Sekien Toriyama's *Gazu Hyakki Yagyo* [3] (1776). However, these classical texts only featured the drawing of the old man without any explanatory text detailing his abilities or origins. It was not until the early Showa period that this enigmatic figure was assigned the specific behavioral trait of "sneaking into someone else's house out of nowhere during the busy evening hours, drinking tea and smoking as if he were the master of the house, while the family assumes he is a guest and cannot bring themselves to kick him out." This lore supposedly originated in 1929 when folklorist Morihiko Fujisawa added his own imaginative commentary to Sekien's illustration in his book *Yokai Gadan Zenshu* [4].

From this audacious behavior of "acting like the master of the house," an aura of grandeur emerged. In the 1970s, children's yokai encyclopedias written by authors like Arifumi Sato [5] officially crowned him the "Supreme Commander of Yokai." This concept was definitively cemented by the TV anime *Gegege no Kitaro* (3rd series, starting in 1985), where Nurarihyon was introduced as Kitaro's arch-nemesis and the cunning leader of an evil yokai army. Consequently, the image of "Nurarihyon = the absolute evil standing at the pinnacle of Japanese yokai" became deeply ingrained in the minds of children nationwide.

In modern pop culture (manga and video games), Nurarihyon is portrayed as possessing diverse "strengths" and "abilities." In the manga *Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan* (Nurarihyon no Mago), he appears as the charismatic first-generation boss of a yakuza-like yokai syndicate, where his legendary "sneaking into houses" trait is reinterpreted as a powerful "Fear" ability to "slip through human recognition." In the sci-fi action manga *GANTZ* (Osaka Arc), he appears as the final boss, the "Nurarihyon Alien." He undergoes multiple grotesque transformations—including a colossal female form composed of countless naked women—inflicting profound psychological trauma on readers with his overwhelming strength and regenerative powers. Furthermore, in the *Yokai Watch* series and its spinoff *Yokai Gakuen Y* (Yokai School), he serves as Lord Enma's strict aide or a competent academy chairman, and he is frequently implemented as a powerful character in mobile games like *Puzzle & Dragons*. The fascinating journey of a yokai that started as a "mere drawing of an old man with no abilities or lore," stimulating the imagination of modern creators to evolve into such a formidable and charismatic figure, perfectly symbolizes the immense flexibility and depth of Japanese yokai culture.