This is a bizarre visiting deity covered in mud and vines. It is said to chase villagers while glaring from beneath an expressionless mask, pressing muddy handprints onto them to drive away the year's misfortunes. Though its arrival is rough and chaotic, it brings both awe and blessings, as the mud it bestows is believed to grant protective power to people and their homes. Usually residing in the otherworld, isolated from the human realm, it only crosses the boundaries of the village on designated festival days, fully coated in the mud of the Spring of Birth. Its silent, plodding steps reflect its solemn duty as a deity of purification—taking the impurities and calamities of the people upon itself and bearing them back to the otherworld.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Personality - Silent and awe-inspiring. Beneath its rough and terrifying exterior lies the deep compassion of a purifying deity seeking to protect the village. It silently takes on the people's misfortunes and returns to the otherworld bearing their calamities.
Compatibility - It shares a deep bond with those reaching milestones in life, those who have built new homes, and newborn children. The more one wishes to be cleansed of impurity, the more they can receive its mud as a profound blessing.
Abilities - Smears mud coated over its entire body onto people, houses, and newborns to ward off the year's evilCrosses from the otherworld into the village to drive away calamity and bring bountiful harvests
Weaknesses - It can only reveal itself on strictly designated festival days, with the time and place of its visit rigidly predetermined.
Habitat - The villages of Miyako Island and the otherworld that lies beyond. In the Shimojiri district, it is said to appear clad in mud from the sacred "Nmariga" (Spring of Birth).
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