Yamawaro (Mountain Child)The Mountain Boy of Western Japan, the Yamawaro

This version looks at the yamawaro — the kappa's "other half" — from the side of life in the mountains. If the kappa is the being that menaces people at the water's edge, the yamawaro is the one that appears at the worksites of mountain labor. It helps woodcutters and charcoal burners haul their timber, taking sake or rice balls in return. Yet the exchange follows a strict code: hand over the promised goods first and it runs off without working, and break a promise and it flies into a furious rage and brings down misfortune. To those who worked the mountains, the yamawaro was at once a dependable partner and a neighbor not to be trusted, one that bared its fangs at any lapse of courtesy.

The tales of the yamawaro are packed tight with the eeriness of the mountains: the "tengu-fell," the sound of a great tree crashing down when no one is there; a voice that mimics human songs and the strokes of an axe to the life; and the strange weakness of disliking the line of a carpenter's ink pot. These are the very dread felt by those who venture deep into the hills. And the legend of the "crossing of the kappa"[1] — entering the mountains at the autumn equinox and returning to the rivers at the spring equinox — ties the yamawaro and the kappa together with a single thread. A single water god that passes between mountain and river — its mountain face is the yamawaro.

This yokai is included in the following collections:

かわいい妖怪｜愛嬌のある日本の妖怪・精霊・付喪神

座敷童子、豆腐小僧、アマビエ、すねこすり、からかさ小僧など、かわいい妖怪を由来と愛嬌の理由から紹介します。

テーマ別

かわいい妖怪可愛い妖怪

画図百鬼夜行｜鳥山石燕が描いた妖怪画集

鳥山石燕『画図百鬼夜行』の収録妖怪、陰・陽・風三巻の構成、典拠、図像、後世への影響を原典と公的資料から紹介します。

カスタム

画図百鬼夜行鳥山石燕

百怪図巻｜佐脇嵩之が描いた30体の妖怪絵巻

佐脇嵩之『百怪図巻』（1737年）の収録妖怪30体、作品の特徴、鳥山石燕への図像的影響を所蔵館資料から紹介します。

カスタム

百怪図巻佐脇嵩之

Yokai with similar personality and characteristics to The Mountain Boy of Western Japan, the Yamawaro

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Yokai with opposite personality and characteristics to The Mountain Boy of Western Japan, the Yamawaro

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