Yesterday was busy busy but I managed ti squeeze in a couple pages!
Yesterday, on the 2nd, I learned about あくどぼっぽり and 小豆とぎ (あずきとぎ).
あくどぼっぽり is an invisible 妖怪 snatches at people ankles when when they’re walking. He particularly likes to do this in the twilight hours under big trees or around where graveyards used to be. I wonder…
小豆とぎ can be invisible or take one the appearance of an old woman. Appearing at specific places near the river, it likes to sing creepy sings while washing 小豆 or 米. In some stories, it also kills people.
Today, I read about the 油ずまし (あぶらずまし), the 天邪鬼 (あまのじゃく) and the 網剪(あみきり).
Of these I find the concept of 天邪鬼 particularly interesting. And not just because I’ve been called that in language class. The amount of 妖怪 that take one the appearance of humans is huge. I wonder if people really were suspicious of each other maybe being something else in disguise that often.
Today’s 妖怪 was 縊鬼. Not much explanation about this one, other than that it convinces people who had no death wish at all to hang themselves It also comes in the form of a tanuki apparently, although the tanuki are usually known for more harmless pranks.
Reminds me of one of the assassins in グラスホッパー who had an ability like that. No mention of this 妖怪 though.
(Minor spoiler - learned within the first few chapters)
Today’s 妖怪 was 以津真天 (いつまで）, a strange bird that sat on the emperor’s roof and cried いつまで, いつまで all the time. Believing it a bad omen, they called an archer to strike it down. The archer used a special arrow that makes noise to stun the strange bird. It turned out to have a human head, a snake body, and teeth like a saw.
Had to laugh when I realized (after puzzling over it for more than I would want to admit) the second “character” wasn’t a kanji, but katakana:
Today was about イワナ坊主, a fish that tried to stop unethical fishing methods (毒もみ）by turning into a monk and having a peaceful conversation with the fishermen. The fishermen shared their food with him, but continued fishing with poison. Shortly after they caught a huge fish, its stomach full of the food they just shared.
Today was about 姥火 (うばがび), a 30-cm high flame that comes out and roams about on rainy days. This was supposed to be an old lady who used to steal kerosene from the 神社 every night when she was alive, so after death she was punished like this. You can see her face through the flames, although sometimes she also resembles a …chicken?
Caught up on entries today and enjoyed the appearance of our friend 枕返し and also 貧乏神, a god/yokai who hangs out in the closet at the homes of lazy people. I would not want to have him in my home, but luckily he seems very easy to get rid of (just put some cooked rice and miso on a tray and lure him out of the house to the closest river and throw the food in to wash him away - as far as exorcism methods go, that’s pretty easy!)
Yesterday’s 妖怪 was 産女. It’s one I had come across before. An 産女 is a mother who died before or during childbirth. Her clothes are stained with blood from the waist down, and she holds her baby in her arms. If she comes across a stranger, she will give him the baby to hold, then disappear. It’s important to remember to hold the baby facing out, or you will be bitten to death. The baby will gradually grow heavier and heavier, but if you manage to survive the crushing weight the 産女 may reward you.
I’ve been reading every day, but I haven’t had time to visit the forums much. :')
妖怪 I’ve read about in the meantime:
The 産女 (うぶめ), which I think is a really cool one! Reading about it again made me want to continue with 〈妖怪の子預かります〉 (series) | L32 …
The 狼 (おおかみ), which I didn’t know was classified as 妖怪…? But it explains a lot about how wolves are sometimes portrayed in Japanese media.
Then there were the 刑部 (おさかべ), who may be a 狐 in disguise, lives in castles and sometimes tells a person’s future, the おとろし, who really doesn’t like when people don’t respect temples and shrines, the 鬼 (おに).- finally! - the おばりょん, who sits as a heavy weight on your back when you walk on dark roads but may turn into gold if you manage to bring it home, and the 朧車 (おぼろぐるま), which us basically the resentful spirit of nobility that died on a 牛車 and takes on the form of that wagon.
That concluded the あ行 for me. After that, there was a 2 page spread on how 妖怪 often tend to have certain places, times or seasons they will appear.
Today I started the か行 with かいなで, who strokes people’s butts on the loo. And the 河童! Who also likes butts… Or butt stones, anyway!
That’s a really sad and really unsurprising outcome.
Today’s 妖怪 was おとろし. His name is supposed to mean scary, but I find him rather cute. He first appeared on a picture scroll among other 妖怪, without any explanation. Later it was said that he would sit on torii and suddenly fall on bad people visiting the 神社.
鬼! He got his recognizable form (horns, tiger skin around waist, 金棒) in the Edo period, but he’d been around before than, in many forms, and has in fact been influenced by many religions. There are festivals dedicated to 鬼 in several places in January and February, and while he’s usually expected to bring disaster, he can also protect from it.
I was more surprised to learn that the cardinal directions had animal names in the past:
丑寅 meant NE for example.
I’ve read this story before, but I can’t remember where. 鍛冶が婆: A messenger once was surrounded by wolves, and escaped on top of a tree. The wolves then called 鍛冶が婆, a wolf with a pan on her head(?). All the wolves stood on top of each other forming a ladder, and 鍛冶が婆 climbed to the top and attacked the messenger, but the messenger fought back with his sword, and the wounded wolf fled, as did the rest of the wolves. The messenger followed the blood trail and got to a house, where he was told that the grandmother had a head wound. The messenger went and killed her, whereupon she returned to her true wolf form. On the floor were scattered the bones of the real grandmother. This legend exists across Japan in many variations. Sometimes it’s tanuki or cats instead of wolves.
Today’s 妖怪: 座敷童子 (ざしきわらし) and an Okinawan snake with a complicated name starting with s. I can’t check because I don’t have the book with me right now.
I finished the か行 yesterday! I’d add the 妖怪 I read about, but… My memory isn’t that good. The big one’s where 狐 and 蜘蛛, but maybe I just remember them because they’re also natural animals.
I’m very happy I’m keeping up with this advent! I tried following the aozora advent, but that one has been mostly miss after the first couple days.
Day 11
桂男: Besides the rabbit that lives on the moon, there’s also a man sent there for punishment - his job is to cut down the 桂 tree on the moon. Apparently he’s lonely, so he sometimes beckons to people who gaze at the moon a little too long - thus cutting their life short. He doesn’t come out on full moon days, so these are the only safe days for 月見!
Day 12
カニ坊主: A temple was deserted after every monk in there somehow disappeared without a trace. Once a travelling monk insisted on staying there despite the villagers’ warnings. He was visited by another monk who set him a riddle: 「四手八足両眼天に指すはいかに」. The monk solved the riddle (it’s a crab) and pierced the other monk with his 独鈷. Following the trail of blood the next morning, a giant crab was found in the river, stabbed in the back. Apparently it was this crab that was devouring everyone at the temple.
金霊: Gold coins falling from the sky. According to one interpretation, good people are rewarded with a fortune raining on their property. Another interpretation says that this refers to meteorites (! the dinosaurs would disagree this is good fortune).
I fell behind for a few days due to illness, so I tried to catch up today. I didn’t remember where I was supposed to be for 4 entries a day, though, and there was a long entry on how 妖怪 are defined so I just picked a suitable place to stop. Will most likely be off and on my own schedule for the rest of advent due to that, though.
Anyways, one of my favs (the ろくろ首!) showed up. It’s funny that it was viewed as an illness back in the Edo period. Imagine getting sick and you suddenly have a super long neck?
I also found the info about the differences in definitions between 妖怪 and 幽霊 interesting.
It was amusing that イタチ are considered a 妖怪 since they are a real animal, but it seems like they’re up to no good (and sometimes stacking themselves up to build magical pillars of flames into the sky - who knew that weasels had such a secret life? )
The amount of 妖怪 that take one the appearance of humans is huge. I wonder if people really were suspicious of each other maybe being something else in disguise that often.
It also comes in the form of a tanuki apparently, although the tanuki are usually known for more harmless pranks.
- who knew that weasels had such a secret life? 
)