A form based on Toriyama Sekien’s illustration and accounts in war chronicles. It bears the will to hinder the Buddhist Law, pecking at temple timbers late at night as an omen of ill fortune. Tradition ties its origin to the vengeful spirit of Mononobe no Moriya, though its shape follows that of a woodpecker. In strange tales the sound comes first, a shadow is seen, and its true body is rarely caught. Folklorically it fuses bird-borne calamity lore with etiologies for temple damage.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
Yokai Type - Traditional Yokai
Category - Animal Shapeshifters
Rarity - Rare
Personality - relentless, insidious, fixated on foes of Buddhism
Compatibility - at odds with temples and Buddhist implements, harmonizes with ancient shrine domains
Abilities - damages wooden structures with a hard beak, erases its presence at night, portends misfortune as a baleful bird sign
Weaknesses - driven off by raptors, weakened by sutra chanting and Buddhist rites, reluctant to show itself in daylight
Habitat - around Shitennō-ji, around Hōryū-ji, temple and shrine groves
🔮Yokai Compatibility Test
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