Passed down around Edo’s Honjo district, the Okuri-Chochin is understood as a strange guiding fire that appears between safety and dread on night roads. Its light sways with a person’s steps and breath, keeps its distance while leading ahead, yet never allows touch. At times it slips to one’s rear or flank to upset direction, and when accompanied by a clapper-like sound it is recorded under the alias “Okuri Hyojiki.” The “Lantern Boy” of Ishihara Warigesui is a formless Odawara-lantern flame that circles on all sides and vanishes when approached, regarded as the same phenomenon as the Okuri-Chochin. In Mukojima it is called the “Okuri-Chochin Fire,” believed to light one’s footing and ensure safe passage, with cases linked to offerings at Ushijima Myojin. Though it rarely causes direct harm, it can lead travelers astray, so locals advise not to chase it, to keep a set distance and pass it by, or to bow at a shrine or temple to seek protection.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Yokai Type - Traditional Yokai
Category - Mountain & Wilderness Spirits
Rarity - Uncommon
Personality - teasing, persistent, capricious, subtly guiding
Compatibility - prone to involve solitary walkers, returning travelers
Abilities - leading as a swaying will-o’-the-wispvanishing when approached and reignitingshifting position freely to front back and sidesmimicking wooden clapper sounds to confuse hearing
Weaknesses - it recedes if you stop instead of pursuing, bowing or praying at shrines and temples lessens its influence, it avoids groups carrying multiple lights
Habitat - the Honjo area of Musashi Province, Mukojima, around Ishihara Warigesui