Yokai Encyclopedia

A spirit formed from the regrets of a woman who died in childbirth, said to appear along night roads, crossroads, and riverbanks. Early modern tales and illustrated books depict her with blood soaking her lower body, cradling a baby and asking passersby to mind the child. Outcomes vary: the helper discovers they held a stone or Jizo statue, receives great strength or wealth as recompense, or suffers misfortune such as being bitten by the infant. Regional variants include Fukushima’s “Obo,” where distracting her with a strip of cloth is advised, and Kyushu’s “Ugume,” whose true nature is revealed at dawn. Edo scholars compared her with nocturnal bird-like portents in Chinese records and reasoned that the qi of those who die in childbirth becomes a yokai. Temple and shrine legends tell of salvation through nembutsu or daimoku, linking her to prayers for childrearing and safe delivery. Ubume is both feared and revered, a spiritual figure embodying a mother’s enduring love.

A codified image of the classic Ushi-no-koku mairi centered on Edo-period etiquette. Clad in white burial garb with disheveled long hair, the practitioner inverts an iron trivet as a crown with three candles lit, hangs a mirror on the chest, and moves toward the shrine on single-toothed geta to muffle steps. At the sacred tree, a doll bearing the target’s name is pinned and a five-inch nail is hammered in each night. The witching hour is strictly the third quarter of the Ox Hour, with fulfillment said to come on the seventh night. If witnessed, the rite loses its power, so silence and care to leave no tracks are prescribed. In art, a black ox sometimes accompanies the figure; lore holds that straddling it on the final night brings success, while shrinking back means failure. Straw-doll usage became common in the early modern era, with roots in ancient scapegoat effigy piercings and Onmyodo katashiro rites. Folklore often stops short of asserting curses as real, instead telling that breaking taboos or exposure nullifies the act.

A type shaped by Edo-period print culture, centered on Sekien’s imagery and the psychologized readings in kyoka verse. Rather than a concrete monster, it personifies the feeling of being held back by a tug at one’s trailing hair, dulling decisions through interference from behind. Mizuki Shigeru cites tales from the Tsuyama area that give it a corporeal aspect—ruffling a woman’s hair, breathing hot air—but in all cases it touches from behind and stirs hesitation. It is often grouped with hesitation-inducing yokai such as Okubyogami, Sodehiki-kozō, and Furifuri. Though there are notes of it being enshrined in Ise, specific rites are unknown, and it appears mainly in moral and didactic contexts. Stories survive in both urban and local settings, yet no clear lineage of deity name or object is shown, with wordplay and the concretization of psychology driving its transmission.

The *Warei* is an entity that embodies the dynamics of *goryo* belief—where a vengeful spirit transforms into an honorable spirit (*goryo*) and then into a guardian deity—within the early modern history of Uwajima. In life, Yamaga Seibee was a retainer who devoted himself to the reform of domain administration. His unnatural death (the Warei Disturbance) and the subsequent chain of lightning strikes and shipwrecks that struck the participants gave people a tangible sense of a curse. The spirit, initially enshrined out of awe and fear, reversed its nature when his innocence was publicly recognized, acquiring the divinity of 'Warei-sama' protecting fishing and industry. The herd of *Ushi-oni* that parades in the Warei Festival at Warei Shrine is a ritual device to comfort and pacify this *goryo*, showing how monsters (*ushi-oni*) and spirits (*warei*) are inextricably linked in Uwajima's festivals.

A traditional reading grounded in the side-by-side entries of the Testament Ghost and the Water-Begging Ghost in Ehon Hyaku Monogatari. The spirits of those who died with last words unspoken or burdened by thirst appear at night to plead for water. Individual names and deeds are seldom told; instead they serve as moral parables urging memorial offerings. When monks chant sutras, perform memorial services, feed hungry ghosts, or make alms to the dead, their thirst is said to be soothed with the symbolic “sweet dew” described in scripture. Told in both towns and villages, they appear where people and water meet—by wells, bridges, graves, and roadsides. They stir pity more than terror, and tales warn that rough treatment brings a curse, while respectful rites lay them to rest.

The Myth of the "Curse" of Immortality. The legend of Yao-bikuni is the most beautiful yet cruelest answer Japanese folklore offers to humanity's universal "fear of aging" and "thirst for eternal life." At first glance, immortality seems like the ultimate blessing, but in this tale, it is explicitly depicted as a "curse." Her tragedy is not that she cannot die, but that "everyone other than herself will inevitably die." Left behind in the world as a beautiful teenage girl while watching her beloved ones grow senile and pass away, this overwhelming temporal isolation inflicted upon her an agony worse than death. Her nationwide pilgrimages to perform good deeds (building infrastructure and planting trees) can be interpreted not merely as acts of compassion, but as an agonizing journey of atonement to find some meaning in an endless existence and to sublimate her karma. Wakasa's Kuin-ji Temple and the Concept of "Nyujo". The cave where she is said to have spent her final moments (Yaohime-gu) still remains at Kuin-ji Temple in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, the terminus of Yao-bikuni's journey. What is particularly noteworthy is that her end is not told as a simple "death (starvation)," but as "Nyujo." Nyujo refers to a high-ranking Buddhist monk entering a deep state of meditation while still alive in order to save sentient beings, becoming an eternal entity (a mummy or Sokushinbutsu). Having been stripped of a physical death by the Ningyo meat, the only way she could "end her existence (or elevate her dimension to something sacred)" was by confining herself to a cave by her own will and renouncing food. The Metaphor of "Yao-bikuni" in Modern Times. In modern subcultures—such as literature, manga, and animation—Yao-bikuni (or her motifs) is an immensely popular subject. Elements like "eternal youth and beauty," "never-ending loneliness," and "the agony of being unable to die" resonate deeply with modern society's fanaticism over anti-aging and the very real social issues of "aging and isolation" in a society with increasing longevity. She is not merely a character from an old folktale, but an eternal heroine who continuously confronts humanity with the ultimate proposition of how we should face time and death.

An image based on the “Yūrei” in Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, published around 1776 (An’ei 5). In a nighttime graveyard a woman’s ghost appears between drooping willows, wearing a white burial robe and a forehead cap, raising her arms as if to halt a passerby. It is a transitional depiction from before footless forms and the triangular headcloth became fixed conventions, emphasizing the lifelike force of the arms and the willow and gravestones as symbols of place. Sekien’s plates organized contemporary strange tales, Buddhist views, and funeral customs, profoundly shaping the visual codification of yūrei. While indicating gender and costume, the image leaves the source of attachment unspecified, inviting the viewer to imagine the relationship.