A specter recorded in Edo-period tale collections such as Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari and Rōō Zawa. Written as “首の番” or “朱の盤,” all read as shu no ban. It appears as a monk-like figure with a crimson face, terrifying onlookers with its ghastly visage and stealing their souls. Stories pair it with the Tongue-Long Crone and often use the “second scare” motif, where a victim is frightened twice; those who encounter it are said to faint, waste away, or die.
Folklore & Legends
A traveler from Echigo bound for Edo took shelter in a shack on a wasteland and encountered the Tongue-Long Crone alongside the monk called Shu no Ban; his companion was found reduced to bones (Rōō Zawa). In Aizu at the Suwa Shrine, a young samurai was twice menaced in succession by a red-faced, one-horned, slit-mouthed apparition; after a hundred days of illness he died (Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari; Rōō Zawa). Early sources give the name as “shu no ban” or “shuban,” and some notes link related names to the area around Kōfuku-ji in Nara, though details are unknown.
In early modern tales, the Vermilion Tray is depicted as a red-faced monk-like figure, appearing as an accomplice of the Long-Tongued Crone or showing its visage alone, reappearing to unnerve and harm people. The name varies between “Watcher of Necks” and “Vermilion Tray,” commonly read as Shunoban. Classic illustrations and yokai prints note a red face, horns, a split mouth, and a fiery aura, though details differ by source. Encounters occur mainly at night at shrine gates, in wastelands, and in tumbledown shacks, and the harm is told as loss of spirit leading to fainting, lingering illness, or death. Reports span regions such as Aizu and Echigo, not as a fixed local deity but as a circulating tale-type of the uncanny.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
bad with travelers, bad with those walking night roads
Abilities
displays a terrifying visage to shock victimsbelieved to weaken a person’s soul and spiritappears in concert with other monsters such as the Long-Tongued Crone
Weaknesses
may vanish when struck with a weapon though details are uncertain, said to disperse at daybreak
Habitat
dilapidated shacks in the wilds, shrine fronts and approach paths, deserted night roads
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The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for Classical Sources Version: Vermilion Tray (Watcher of Necks). The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
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