Miyagi prefecture

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- KAPPA - 河童 / かっぱ /　カッパ - Legends -
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- Miyagi 宮城県 -



A prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region on Honshu island.
The capital is Sendai.
Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. 陸奥国 Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the largest as it expanded northward. The ancient capital was at Taga-jō in modern Miyagi Prefecture.

In the third month of second year of the Wadō era (709), there was an uprising against governmental authority in Mutsu Province and in nearby Echigo Province. Troops were promptly dispatched to subdue the revolt.

During the Sengoku period various clans ruled different parts of the province. The Uesugi clan had a castle town at Wakamatsu in the south, the Nambu clan at Morioka in the north, and Date Masamune, a close ally of the Tokugawa, established Sendai, which is now the largest town of the Tōhoku region.

Date Masamune built a castle at Sendai as his seat to rule Mutsu.
In 1871, Sendai Prefecture was formed. It was renamed Miyagi prefecture the following year.
- more in the wikipedia -

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In the town of Shikama 色麻町　in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan,
there is a shrine devoted to a water god. In the Heian period (794-1192), a shogun named Sakanoue no Tamuramaro arrived in this area. A man called Touemon swam like a kappa across the swiftly flowing river and worked hard for the shogun. The shogun was so pleased that he gave Touemon the surname kappa, which has been handed down by generations of chief priests at the shrine ever since.

The kappa's favorite food is the cucumber. In ancient times, some houses had streams running through their grounds for washing vegetables and other things. People would take the first cucumbers harvested and throw them into these streams as offerings to the water god.
- source : web-japan.org/kidsweb


. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro 坂上田村麻呂 .
(758 - 811)
conquering the Emishi (蝦夷征伐 Emishi Seibatsu) in Tohoku.

. Kappa Legends .


. 長田のガラッパ and the monkey from Osaki.

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加美郡 Kami gun 色麻村 Shikama village
磯良神社は通称「お河童様」と呼ばれる。河童川という小川が流れ、昔は「おむろ」という大きな淵があった。ここで膳椀の借用を頼むと必ず貸してくれた。ある時借りたカサコを１つ無くし、足りないまま返してからは貸してくれなくなった。

Isora Jinja 磯良神社の御手洗池は底知らずであるといわれる。竜宮のような御殿があって姫が住み、毎年七夕に、池の底から機の音がするという。

. Isora Jinja 磯良神社 - the Kappa Shrine 河童神社 .


Kappa no Furusato Matsuri かっぱのふるさとまつり- Miyagi 宮城 色麻町　Mid-August
O-Kappa sama no matsuri おかっぱ様のお祭り - Miyagi 宮城 色麻町　Isora Jinja 磯良神社
15th day of the 6th lunar month

. - Kappa Festivals かっぱ祭り　Kappa Matsuri - .




Kappei kun 活平くん and Masako chan 麻子ちゃん - Miyagi 加美郡色麻町

. - Mascots マスコット　and Characters キャラクター .



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Kappa カゥパ Miyagi 宮城県下水道課

. - Mascots マスコット　and Characters キャラクター .


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. kahaku, kawa no kami 河伯（かわのかみ） River Deity, "river chief" .
originally a Chinese river deity with a demon-like face.
Sometimes his face is part of a "demon tile" onigawara 鬼瓦　to protect a building from fire.
In Japan, another name for the water goblin Kappa.

Kahaku Shushin 河伯主神　Kahaku Water Deity

安福河伯神社 Abuku Kahaku Jinja / Afuku Kahaku-jinja
宮城県亘理郡亘理町逢隈田沢字堰下２２０ / Miyagi
- reference -

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栗原郡 Kurihata gun 金城町 Kanagicho
昔、おじいさんとおばあさんが川に水浴びに行ったときカッパが出たので、怖くなって逃げた。そのカッパはどこへ行ったかわからない。

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本吉郡 Motoyoshi gun 本吉町 Motoyoshicho

近春という殿様がKoizumigawa 小泉川で馬を洗っていたら、カッパが馬の尻尾を引っ張って馬が暴れたのでカッパを捕まえて屋敷に戻った。カッパがもうしないと証文を書くから許してくれというので、石に証文を書かせて放した。今でも証文が残っている。
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近春という殿様が小泉川を馬で渡ったら、カッパが馬の尻尾を引っ張ったので斬り捨てようとしたら、カッパがもうしないと水遁の術を教えるから許してくれというので、術を教わり助けてやった。
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小泉川の土橋を旅人が通りかかったとき、Shizugawa 志津川の Kawajiribashi 川尻橋まで手紙の使いを頼まれた。不審に思って途中で手紙を読むと、小泉のカッパから志津川のカッパへの手紙で、「住みやすいから小泉に来い、この男の生き胆をプレゼントしてやる」と書いてあったので、手紙を捨てて逃げ出した。
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小泉のカッパが旅人に、志津川のカッパへの言伝を頼んだ。自身で出向かなかったのは志津川の手前の清水というところに猫のボスがいるからだった。子分を大勢従えているので、カッパやムジナや狐はこの猫のボスを恐れていたという。
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1937年のこと。話者の祖母が友人と小泉川の河口近くに草刈りに行って、あまりに暑いので泳いでいたところ、祖母はカッパに引っ張られて溺れて死んだ。死体の肛門から内臓が抜かれていたという。
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小泉川に架かっている梨の木橋にはカッパが出るという。
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カッパは海と川にいて、子どもの肝を抜いて食う。
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Below a rock called Karudo-Iwa カルド岩 at the river pool Kumandobuchi 熊ん堂淵 was a hole where a Kappa lived.
The narrator had once seen the dead body of a drowned man, with its intestines all having torn out of the anus and fallen to the river bed 川底.

There are other legends about mosters at the Kumandobuchi.

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仙台市 Sendai
7月7日に、胡瓜を食べて水浴びすると、河童に腹部を刳り貫かれる。ことに、北上川沿岸で恐れられている。


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柴田郡 柴田町 Shibata village
河童で有名なのは遠野。ここらにはいない。話には、川に人を引く、頭に皿があり、頭の皿に水が無くなる弱る、と聞いている。



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川魚村 ?Kawasakana mura 伊草村 Igusamura
伊草のクサ坊と越辺の久兵衛という河童がいた。ある時子供が遊んでいるところに来て火を乞うたが、今はないから二度目に来いと答えた。次に来たとき「河童火やろ」と言うと「イエ」と言い、行ってしまった。
Kappa hi yaroo


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沖の田の河童 The Kappa from Okitabashi
昔、ある 里人 が、 沖の田橋 の近くを散歩していたとき、知り合いの 爺さん が、誰かと 相撲 をとっているのを見た。すると、突然、その里人は、「 おい！ 爺さん、気をつけろ！ そいつは、人間に 化けた 河童 だぞ！ 」と叫んだ。

その後、その爺さんが、「 何で、河童だとわかったんだ？ 」と聞いたところ、その里人は、「 河童は、人間の 尻 の穴から手を入れて、 腸 を取って食べようとしている。あいつは、相撲をとっているとき、爺さんの尻にばかり手をまわしていた。だから、河童だとわかったんだ 」と答えたという。

参考『 気仙沼市史 Ⅶ 民俗・宗教編 』
( 気仙沼市／本吉町沖の田 )

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『 三条近春と河童 』。 昔、この里に、“ 三条小太夫近春 ”という武士が住んでいた。ある日、近春が、自分の馬を川に･･･。
昔、この里に、“ 三条小太夫近春 ”という武士が住んでいた。 ある日、近春が、自分の馬を川に連れて行き、体を洗ってやっていると、突然、馬が 暴れ だした。

不審 に思った近春が、馬のまわりを見てみると、 河童 が、馬の 尻尾 に、ぶらさがって遊んでいる。近春は 激怒 して、「 私の馬に、何ということをするんだ！ この 無礼 者め！ 」と叫んで、持っていた 鞭 で、河童を激しく 叩いた 。

すると、その河童は、「 ごめんなさい…。ごめんなさい…。 水遁 に関する 巻物 と 詫び証文 をあげるから、許してください 」と言って、泣きながら、その二つの物を近春にさしだしたという。

近春は、たいへん泳ぎが上手だったという。また、この伝承の詫び証文に関して、本吉町誌Ⅱには、「 この証文石は天候の観察に役立つといわれ、また一説には、水にもぐるために使用した石だともいわれており今も伝えられております 」とある。

参考『 本吉町誌Ⅱ 』　( 気仙沼市／本吉町 )

- source : legend.main.jp/50-kesennuma

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気仙沼市本吉町小泉 Kesennuma, Motoyoshicho

八幡神社
［宮城県気仙沼市本吉町小泉］??
この八幡神社はヨダワケノミコトをお祀りした神社で、天文12（1584）年に建立されました。桃山時代ですね。当時小泉地区には小泉城があって、殿様の三条小太夫近春（さんじょうこだゆうちかはる）が中舘平五郎信常（なかだてへいごろうのぶつね）を宇佐八幡宮にやって、そのころは交通機関も何もないもんですから、1年かけて歩いて行ってね。九州・大分の宇佐八幡宮が日本全国の八幡様の総本宮なんですよ。格が高くなってくると、八幡「神社」ではなくて、八幡「宮」になるんです。そこから分霊してもらったのが始まりなんですね。小泉城の跡は、今朝磯（けさいそ）の仮設住宅のところにあるんです。
snip

なぜそんなことができたかという、おかしな話があってね。近春が小泉の川に馬に乗って入って馬を洗っていると、河童がいたんだそうです。河童が馬に悪さをしていたので、近春が河童を「お前、そんなことしちゃだめじゃねか」っていきなり押さえて、えらく説教したんだそうですよ。「いや殿様、助けてくれたから大事なことを教えてあげます」と、水遁（スイトン）の術っていって、水に長時間潜っていられる術を授けたんだそうです。それで、沼に身を隠したんですね。
伊達の家来は、「近春は死んだ、もう万歳だから帰ろう」と言って去って行った。伊達の家来が帰った時に、近春はこそこそ上がってきて、小泉に帰ってきたんです。次の年になっても、伊達家からまた、「来い」と命令があって、近春も今年はダメだって覚悟したんですよ。「今度行ってまた水の中に隠れても見つかってしまうだろう」と。それで、もう八幡神社のお祭りは見納めだからと、早めにお祭りをやって、そして覚悟して出て行ったんですね。
［宮城県気仙沼市本吉町小泉］??
source :　kikigaki.rq-center.jp


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気仙沼河童堂 Kesennuma Kappa-Do
釣具・釣餌店 shop for fishing equipment
宮城県気仙沼市赤岩石兜55-1

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- reference - nichibun.ac.jp -

- reference -


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. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .

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. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説, Kappa minwa 河童民話 - Legends - Introduction .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #kappamiyagi #miyagi -
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Tetsugi Shrine

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- KAPPA - 河童 / かっぱ /　カッパ - Legends -
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- Tetsugi Jinja 手接神社 -
茨城県小美玉市世沢 Ibaraki

lit. "The Shrine of the Grafted Arm", see the legend below.



- source and photos : bouguya.exblog.jp

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Praying at this shrine will help heal problems with your hand and arms.

. - Kappa no kusuri カッパの薬 / 河童の薬 Kappa and medicine - .

There are many legends of a Kappa who had exchanged his arm for a special medicine and then died, but this legend comes in some versions.





- quote
Once upon a time
some say it was toward the end of the Heian period, on a late afternoon, the Lord Serizawa 芹澤氏　was riding alone along the banks of a river. A kappa lived in this river at that time.
Suddenly his horse stopped.
When the lord looked down he saw a Kappa pulling at its tail to get the horse into the water.



The Lord was taken by surprize.
"His must be the bad guy who is doing so much harm to the villagers all the time!"
He took his sword, grabed the tail of his horse and cut off the arm of the Kappa.
The Kappa had to jump back into the water without his arm and the hand with the web between the fingers 水掻き to make his such a good swimmer.

The Lord thought this arm of the Kappa was quite special and put it up on the shelf in the tokonoma 床の間 decoration alcove of his reception room.

Late at night a lone man knocked at his gate and asked for a lodging for this night.
His face was a pale green and he had only one arm.
The Lord did not want to ask the poor man about the reason for the missing arm and had a bed prepared for him. Then he went to sleep himself.



- - - BUT
at midnight, he felt the presence of another being and indeed, when he checked, the man was just trying to steal the arm of the Kappa from the shelf.

"Hey, so you are a thief after all!" he yelled at the man.
The man turned into a Kappa in no time, grabbed the arm on the shelf and tried to run out of the estate.

But the Lord, who was a strong man, caught the Kappa and bound him with a rope.
"At least now we know who you are, you vicious Kappa.
I will not allow you to harm my villagers any more, you bad bad Kappa!"

"Dear Lord, please forgive me, I will never be bad again. Please, please, let me go back to my river! I understand your anger very well, but you see, I have an old mother and if I do not come home to care for her, she will die too. Just thinking about her makes me so sad!"

When the Lord heard this story, he felt pity with the Kappa.
"Well, because of your mother I will forgive you for today. But you have to promise never to do any harm again. As a punishment for your misdeeds so far, I will keep this arm of yours!"

But the Kappa pleaded again. If he dose not get his arm back, he said, he can do nothing and not help his old mother and in the end, the Lord let him have the arm back.

"For the sake of your mother and since you seem to care so much for her (oya kookoo 親孝行),
I will let you have the arm back."
"Thank you so very much, my Lord. I will never forget you and pay you back a favor some time!"

Next morning - oh wonder - a huge carp was hanging from the branch of a tree in his garden.
And the following morning, - oh wonder - a huge eels was hanging on the branch.
And you guess, the following morning - oh wonder - a crucian carp (funa フナ) was hanging on the branch.

The Lord asked his retainers, but nobody had done this and nobody knew anything about this fish present.
A month went by, half a year went by, a year went by with a fish present hanging on the tree every morning.

Then came a very cold day of winter, with a strong cold gale blowing and on this morning, nothing was hanging on the branch.
"I wonder what happened to our fish provider. Maybe he is ill?"
And the Lord went down to the river to have a look.

When he looked down at the river from the bank, he saw something bobbing in the water.
When he came closer, he saw the dead body of the Kappa with o huge would on one of his arms.
And in his hand the Kappa was grabbing a huge huge carp.

When the Lord saw the hand grabbing the carp, he suddenly realized who had brought a fish to his garden every morning. It was the Kappa he had once spared the life!
So the Lord had a shrine build upstream to venerate and thank the Kappa for his daily presents-
the Tetsugi Jinja - lit. "The Shrine of the Grafted Arm".
The End.
- reference : isituka_mitiko


Another source quoted that the Kappa was also passing on the recipe for a medicine to heal wounds.
The family of Serizawa kept the medicine for many many generations, and after they lost their status as samurai, they made a living as doctors.
Serizawa Kamo 芹沢鴨 (? - 1863), of the Shinsengumi, was a member of this clan.
- reference : shittaka37.seesaa.net





The name of the bridge is also given as 手奪橋 Teubaibashi - bridge of the captured arm.
across the river 梶無川 Kajinashigawa.
（茨城県行方市玉造町芹沢橋)
The Kappa grabbed the horse's tail when the Lord rode over this bridge.
- reference : ameblo.jp/shokokai-namegata






The name of the Kappa is given as 七郎河童 Shichiro Kappa.

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source :　denebolaleonis.blog

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. . . CLICK here for Photos !

- reference -

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- quote -
Serizawa Kamo 芹沢鴨 (1826? – October 30?, 1863)
was a samurai known for being the original lead commander of the Shinsengumi. He trained in and received a licence in the Shindō Munen-ryū. "Kamo" means goose or duck in Japanese which was an odd name to call oneself at the time.
His full name was Serizawa Kamo Taira no Mitsumoto (Serizawa=family name, Kamo=given name, Taira=family clan name, Mitsumoto=formal given name.)

The Serizawa family were upper-seat Goshi rank samurai in Serizawa village in Mito which is now the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. Kamo was born as the youngest son and his childhood name was Genta. He had two older brothers and an older sister. He was educated with the Sonnō jōi ideals (meaning revere the Tenno (emperor) and expel the foreigners) and swordsmanship since childhood at Kodoukan which was a state school in Mito. Mito is a sub-branch of the Tokugawa family and it was considered the motherland of the Sonnō Jōi ideology and was a center of support for the Tennō and the Imperial court, which helped fuel the Revolution.



- maybe Zerisawa 芹沢鴨？

Although no portrait of Kamo remains, it is said he was a large man with very pale skin and small eyes.

On one hand, Serizawa was quite bold and fearless and on the other hand, he was extremely selfish and had a terribly short temper so he started fights often. If he was in a bad mood he would get violent, especially when he was drinking, and he was a heavy drinker.
He was an idealist who held very strong pro-Imperial court beliefs and took the Sonno-joi beliefs very seriously while at the same time siding with the Tokugawa regime. A small fact that is less well-known is that Serizawa was good at drawing and showed his drawings to children.
- source : wikipedia


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. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .

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. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説, Kappa minwa 河童民話 - Legends - Introduction .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #kappatetsugi #tetsugi -
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Garappa

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- KAPPA - 河童 / かっぱ /　カッパ - Names -
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- Garappa ガラッパ Garappa Don ガラッパドン of Kyushu
ガワッパ　gawappa　カワッパ　 kawappa
- river child - same as Garappa -

- quote
APPEARANCE:
Garappa are river spirits found on the islands of Kyushu in southern Japan. They are close relatives of kappa and resemble them in many ways, thus the two are often confused with each other. There are a number of important differences. Physically, garappa are almost identical to kappa, the most notable difference being that a garappa’s limbs are much longer than those of a kappa. When garappa sit down their knees rise high above their heads, while kappa’s knees do not. Because of these longer limbs, garappa are taller than kappa when standing upright. Garappa also have slightly longer and more streamlined faces.



BEHAVIOR:
Garappa are much more shy and elusive than kappa, and tend to avoid populated areas. Instead, they wander back and forth between the rivers and mountains. They tend to live in smaller groups, or by themselves. Because of their shyness, garappa are more often heard than seen. They have two distinctive calls: “hyo–hyo–,” and, “foon-foon-foon.”

INTERACTIONS:
While garappa encounters are much rarer than kappa, they share with kappa a similar relationship with humankind. They are extremely fond of pranks and mischief, and love to surprise people on mountain paths, or trick travelers into losing their way. Garappa are physically stronger than a human, and easily capable of overpowering grown men larger than them. They are extremely fond of sumo wrestling, at which they are highly skilled. Garappa are also very sexually aggressive and frequently assault and rape women.

Despite their reputation as tricksters, garappa are absolutely dedicated to keeping their word. When captured or bested in contest by humans, they are usually forced by their victors to promise to stop drowning people, playing pranks, making noises in the woods, or similar concessions. Over the centuries, Shinto sects which revere garappa have worked to earn promises from them to cease doing evil; as a result garappa attacks have become less and less common over time. Garappa also occasionally serve humans by catching fish or planting rice fields, and they are credited with teaching the ancient people of Kyushu the art of making poultices.
- source : yokai.com

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. Things a Kappa dislikes and fears .
Especially dislikes of the Garappa from Kyushu.

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Garappa Don ガラッパドン - Toda Kannon 戸田観音 - 観音堂 Kannon-Do
鹿児島県薩摩川内市中村町 / Nakamuracho, Satsumasendai, Kagoshima



The Toda Kannon temple has been erected in 1459 on orders of the lord o the castle 宮之城 Miyanojo, Shibuya Tokushige Kedo-In 渋谷（祁答院）徳重.

The following legends date from this time.

Lord Tokushige had a beautiful daughter.
One day she went to play at the river with seven lady attendants, but by some strange accident she fell into the river. The ladies tried to save her, but she sank down to the riverbed and did not come up again.
The ladies, who all felt guilty of this accident, drowned themselves in the river too.

A few days later the body of the princes and the other ladies were found and Lord Tokushige built the temple 観音堂 Kannon-Do by the riverside where it all happened.
He thought the real cause of her death was the lord of the river, the Garappa ガラッパ（河童), so he had this statue made and placed at the feet of the Kannon statue.
He also had a stone memorial erected stating that no Garappa would never do malicious things around here.
Well, maybe because of all this, there have never been water accidents around here any more.



At the Toda Kannon there is a Kappa statue to our day. It might be a new statue made a lot later. But the figure does not seem to be a true Kappa, since the body is all covered in fish scales. The figure also has its arms and legs spreading out, and might snow the Kappa suffering from the Lord's wrath.
Even now many people come here to pray for protection from water accidents.

The Shibuya clan 渋谷 later moved on to Kanagawa and even the Shibuya ward of Tokyo is related to it.
He came to Kagoshima around 1248. Their ancestor was Kawasaki Shige-Ie, who helped defend the capital of Kyoto during the late Heian period and was granted the name of Shibuya..

- reference : japanmystery.com

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八代地方に伝わる民話 Hiko-Ichi Legend 彦一
from Yachidai, Kumamoto, Kyushu

彦一と河童の相撲 - ガラッパ Hiko-Ichi and the Kappa (Garappa) doing Sumo

. . Sumoo　河童相撲 　Kappa Sumo wrestling . .

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. butsudan　仏壇と伝説 legends about the Buddhist family altar .

In the 曽於郡 Soo district the Garappa comes for a revenge, if the God of Water is not properly respected.
But if people eat the rice offered at the Butsudan, he will not be able to harm them.
People will smell of the incense and the Garappa thinks it is the soul of a dead ancestor coming down.

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. kamon 家紋 family crest and Garappa .

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旧12月はじめの巳の日に仏壇に豆腐や餅を供える。四国でも各地により多少相違はあるが、この日は死霊が訪れてくる日だと信じていた。

. Tōfu kozō 豆腐小僧 Tofu Kozo, The Tofu Boy .

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. butsudan no hai 仏壇の灰 ashes from the family altar .
- Things a Kappa does not like!

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上総国である家の子供が友達に誘われ川遊びに行こうとしたので、母親がまじないに仏壇に供えた飯を食べていけと告げたところ、それは嫌だと友達が逃げた。河童が化けていたのである。


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. Yamanokami 山の神 God of the Mountain .


source : sinnurikabe ...

In Summer, Garappa is 川の神 a river deity, in Winter, be becomes Yamanokami.
His call is ピーピー pii pii. If someone goes to the river in the late evening to fetch water, he can see the Garappa.

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. . . CLICK here for Photos !

- reference -


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. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .

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. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説, Kappa minwa 河童民話 - Legends - Introduction .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .

- #kappagarappa #garappa -
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Yoki Yokai Demons

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - ABC-List .
. Onipedia - 鬼ペディア　- Oni Demons - ABC-List - .
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yooki 妖鬼 Yoki - Yokai Monster Demon

The Chinese characters indicate beings that are part 妖 Yokai monsters and part 鬼 Oni Demons.
They include human beings that turned into demons
. kijin - onibito オニビト / 鬼人と伝説　"human demon" Legends .

kaii, kai-i 怪異 strange things
another expression often used with Yokai and Demons.


- source : 怪異妖怪伝承データベース　-

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妖鬼化 （むじゃら）Mujara
Mizuki Shigeru 水木しげる
Series of 12 volumes, introducing Yoki monster demons.









- quote -
The Life and Death of Shigeru Mizuki
Mizuki was much more than a comic artist. He was a philosopher. A visionary. A bon vivant of the everyday. Japan’s most important folklorist since Yanagita Kunio, Mizuki wrote and illustrated an 12-volume series of world folklore called Mujara that earned him membership in the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology.
- source : Zack Davisson -

. Mizuki Shigeru 水木しげる .


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Yookihi Den 妖鬼妃伝 Legend of Princess Yokihi
美内すずえ Miuchi Suzue



. Yookihi 楊貴妃 Yokihi - Princess Yang Gui Fei .
a famous Chinese beauty

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haku yooki 白妖鬼 The White Yoki
高橋克彦 Takahashi Katsuhito



A historical novel about the Heian period, where special 陰陽師 Onmyoshi demon experts had to protect the capital of Heiankyo.
The hero Yuge no Koreo 弓削是雄 had to go all the way to 陸奥 Mutsu in Tohoku to fight with 烏天狗 Karasu Tengu.


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羅生門の妖鬼 Rashomon no Yoki
Movie from 1956 by Kiyoshi Saeki Kiyoshi



. The Demon of Rashomon 羅生門の鬼 .


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. Japanese Legends - 伝説　民話　昔話 – ABC-List .


............................................................................................................ Gifu 岐阜県
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郡上郡 Gujo district

yooki 妖鬼 Yoki - Yoki Demon / 鬼人 Kijin Human Demon



This legend dates back more than 900 years.
. unagi to oni 鰻 the Eel and yooki 妖鬼 the Monster Demon .
Fujiwara no Takamitsu 藤原高光 (939 - 994)
瓢ヶ岳 Mount Fukubegatake (1,159 m)

. Gujo Kaido 郡上街道 Gujo Highway .
From 岐阜市加納 Gifu city, Kano to the 大師堂 Daishi Do Hall in 石徹白 Itoshiro.



............................................................................................................ Hyogo 兵庫県

Tengu 天狗 - kaii 怪異 strange things
In the mountains of Tanba 丹波 Tamba the Tengu have their own "road" and if people happen to built a home there, they will be cursed.
The Confucian scholar 伊藤仁斎 Ito Jinsai (1627 - 1705) once built his home there, but every night there was a huge noise and rumbling and he could not live there.
He sold the home to someone who did not know about this (and Jinzai did not tell him either) but - oh wonder - it all kept quiet with the new owner.

- quote -
Itō Jinsai (伊藤仁斎, August 30, 1627, Kyoto, Japan – April 5, 1705, Kyoto),
who also went by the pen name Keisai, was a Japanese Confucian philosopher and educator. He is considered to be one of the most influential Confucian scholars of seventeenth century Japan, and the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) generally, his teachings flourishing especially in Kyoto and the Kansai area through the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !




............................................................................................................ Kyoto 京都府

bakemono yashiki 妖怪宅地 home with monsters - kaii 怪異 strange things
In Kyoto there was a home with monsters (化物屋敷 bakemono yashiki). When the owner tried to lend it to someone, ever for very cheap, after 5 or 10 days a Yoki would make its appearance and scare them away.
Once a scholar with a strong mind lived there and for 2, 3 months all kept quiet. Later sometimes when he washed his hands outside in the hand basin, the Yoki would grab his hand, but that was all.




............................................................................................................ Miyagi 宮城県
白井市 Shiroi town 斎川 Saigawa

hitokami-zawa 人噛み沢 swamp biting humans
The 荒沢 Arasawa swamp is West of the swamp 馬主沼 (horse-master swamp).
They say there lives a Yoki which bites humans to death.


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- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
- reference - 妖鬼　-

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. - - - Join the Onipedia friends on facebook ! - - - .

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. Onipedia - 鬼ペディア　- Oni Demons - ABC-List - .

. Tengu 天狗と伝説 Tengu legends "Long-nosed Goblin" .

. - yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

. Japanese Legends - 伝説　民話　昔話 – ABC-List .

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- #yoki #oniyokai #kaii #strangethings -
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Yokai Reference

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- - yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - ABC-Index -
.
. yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters art motives - Gallery .
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- yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - Reference -


Goyu - 36 Stations of the Yokai Road - Mizuki Shigeru


. tsukimono 憑き物 bewitched .
Being bewitched by a fox, badger, a Yokai or other ill-meaning foe was pretty common in Japan,
there are many legends and tales about it.

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source :　Yokai Attack - Lucas Perla - fb

Watch out for the Kappa, Fudo Myo-O and even Daruma san!


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. Nihon Ryōiki 日本霊異記 Nihon Ryoiki - Ghostly Strange Records from Japan .
from the Heian period - and a modern version by 水木しげる Mizuki Shigeru
Record of Miraculous Events in Japan


Inoue Enryoo 井上 円了 Inoue Enryo
Kokkuri 狐狗狸 Table-Turning
Yookai Hakase　妖怪博士 a "monster professor" takes a closer look at monsters.


Ueda Akinari 上田秋成 (1734 - 1809)
He is famous for his eerie ghost stories and strange fiction in Japan.


. - Haiku and Senryu about Yokai monsters - . 　

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source :　chabashirachan.at.webry.

裃河童と妖怪雛 Yokai Hina Dolls with Kappa in the front line



. Sugoroku board with Yokai monsters 百種怪談妖物双六 .

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The Book of Yokai



. - Foster, Michael Dylan Foster - and the Kappa .

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The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia



Freeman, Richard Freeman

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Yokai - The Art Tour of Contemporary Japan
Mr. Katsuo - Japan Monster Tours Inc.



- source : yokai-book.com





津々浦々「お化け」生息マップ
雪女は東京出身?九州の河童はちょいワル?

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. Mizuki Shigeru 水木 しげる Shigeru Mizuki .
and Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō ゲゲゲの鬼太郎, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro
and


CLICK for more photos !

Kappa no Sanpei 河童の三平 / カッパの三平 Sanpei, the Kappa

The boy Sanpei befriends a kappa water-sprite and is soon accepted into a world of spiritual fun . . .




- reference about Sanpei -






Kappa nandemo Nyumon 河童なんでも入門 Introducing ALL about the Kappa

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. yookai wotchi, Yōkai Wotchi 妖怪ウォッチ - Yo-Kai Watch , Yokai Watch.


CLICK for more samples !


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- Yokai articles at mag japaaan com
- reference : Japaaan（ジャパーン）マガジン -

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bakemono konrei 化物婚礼 Monsters having a wedding
- scroll by 惺々暁斎（1831-1889）
妖怪の婚礼の一部始終を鮮やかな色彩で描いた絵巻物



- source : Toyo University -

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和漢百魅缶（わかんももみかん） (Monster list of all prefectures) - tba
道州表示参照表 / おばけ（遺伝子組替えを含む）、ふしぎ生物、
せいれい、糖類（ショ糖、ぶどう糖）、酸味料、酸化防止剤（押戻し）
- source : cotton-candy/maki -

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mimibukuro 耳袋 Mimi Bukuro, Mimi-Bukuro "Tales Heard"
Japanese Edo period anthology of oral tales




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是は御ぞんじのばけ物にて御座候
羽川珍重稿　村田屋版 Printed by Murataya
A Red Book 赤本 from around 享保頃 (1704-1736).
... 題簽に三つ目の化け物が描かれた本書は、甲子待の夜のお伽話から始まる。「ももんが」に人気があつまるのを快く思わない見越入道が、猫や狸、河童などの様々な化け物を集めて、ももんが一統と相対する。左端に見える毛皮のマントをかぶったような化け物がももんがである。登場する化け物の姿が皆ユーモラスでほほえましい。
- source : library.metro.tokyo.jp -

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Mythical Beasts of Japan:
From Evil Creatures to Sacred Beings
Koichi Yumoto (Author), Hiroyuki Kano (Author), Akiko Taki (Editor)

Japanese imaginary creatures, such as Byakko (White Tiger), Suzaku (Vermilion Bird), Genbu (Black Tortoise), and Ryu (Japanese Dragon), were handed down from ancient Chinese mythology. Prayers were often offered to these beings since they are believed to cause mischief among ordinary mortals.
- reference -

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Hyaku Monogatari no Zu 百物語の図 by Katsushika Hokusai 北斎
One Hundred Ghost Stories in a Haunted House　
新版浮絵化物屋鋪 Shinpan uki-e bakemono yashiki

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Yookai Tsuushin　妖怪通信　Yokai Tsushin　- Monster News



- source : www.rg-youkai.com -

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. Toriyama Sekien 鳥山石燕 (1712 – 1788) .
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō 画図百鬼夜行 The Illustrated Night Parade of A Hundred Demons
Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki 今昔画図続百鬼 / Supplement 今昔百鬼拾遺
Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro 画図百器徒然袋




The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
- source : Matthew Meyer




CLICK for more yokai books !

桃山人夜話　Tōsanjin Yawa "Night Stories of the People of Peach Mountain"
- 絵本百物語 Ehon Hyaku Monogatari "Picture Book of a Hundred Stories"
竹原春泉 Takehara Shunsen
a book of images by Japanese artist Takehara Shunsen, published about 1841. The book was intended as a followup to Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yakō series. Like those books, it is a supernatural bestiary of ghosts, monsters, and spirits which has had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan.



. Ueda Akinari 上田秋成 (1734 - 1809) .
Ugetsu Monogatari 雨月物語 Tales of Moonlight and Rain
J-horror: Early encounters with the unhuman
... this collection contains nine tales that all have the hallmarks of classic kaidan (“strange tales”).
- quoting Eugene Thacker

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妖怪・憑依・擬人化の文化史 (yokai, hyoi (spirit possession), gijin (impersonification),
伊藤慎吾編 - 笠間書院
- detailed contents :
- source : kasamashoin.jp -

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浮世絵でみる! お化け図鑑
Something Wicked from Japan
中右瑛 (著, 監修)
In Japanese and English

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浮世絵・妖術使い名鑑 / 江戸妖怪大図鑑
『児雷也豪傑譚』では児雷也の恋人
大蛇丸（おろちまる）
児雷也と大蛇丸が巨大なガマ
白面金毛九尾の狐という化け物
滝夜刃（たきやしゃ）。平将門の遺児。
平太郎良門（たいらのたろうよしかど）。平将門の遺児
鬼童丸（きどうまる）
袴垂保輔（はかまだれ・やすすけ）
若菜姫（わかなひめ）
虎王丸（とらおうまる）
美妙水義高（しみず・よしたか）
天竺徳兵衛（てんじく・とくべえ）
綱手（つなで）。ナメクジの妖術使い
大蛇丸（おろちまる）
藤浪由縁之丞（ふじなみ・ゆかりのじょう）
蒙雲国師（もううんこくし）。蛟（みずち）
妙椿（みょうちん）
ネズミが妖術を使っている
- source : togetter.com -

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- quote -
Reviving Japan’s Dreaded and Beloved Ghosts
Tanuki, the badger-like, shape-shifting creatures of Japanese lore, are a rascally, impetuous bunch. In one tale, a tanuki playfully transforms into a steam train but then gets flattened by a real train coming from the opposite direction. In another, a tanuki kills an old woman and makes soup out of her, then takes her form and feeds the soup to her husband.

Fantastical monsters like the tanuki abound in Michael Dylan Foster’s “The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore” (University of California Press), one of several books about yokai that have hit American shelves this year.

In June, Zack Davisson will publish “Yurei: The Japanese Ghost” (Chin Music Press), a critical look at the history of some of Japan’s most dreaded and beloved spooks. Both are scholarly texts enlivened by images of the beasts in scroll paintings, woodblock prints and original illustrations.



Michael Goldstein’s “Yokai Character Collection” (PanAm Books) is more pictorial. It has the gruesome look and feel of a Dungeons & Dragons manual, with Japanese peeping toms and anthropomorphic umbrellas taking the place of knights and gnomes. The book’s illustrator, Chip Boles, seemed to have fun imagining what beasts like a mokumokuren, a “sliding door filled with hundreds of eyes,” and a kappa, a water demon often blamed for drowning horses and humans, might look like.

And then there’s Matthew Meyer’s forthcoming “The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits,” an encyclopedic look at yokai that includes notes on each creature’s appearance, behavior and favorite hangouts. Mr. Meyer’s paintings combine the vibrant colors of traditional Japanese woodblock prints with references to Asian horror movies and contemporary manga. The result is a coffee-table book (self-published) that doubles as an illustrated guide, full of legends and obscure yokai trivia.
Why the recent crop of yokai books in the United States?
Credit generations of Americans exposed to the creatures through a steady stream of Japanese cultural imports. Haruki Murakami has included several in his novels, while hordes have appeared in the films of Hayao Miyazaki (the clicking, bobble-headed kodama, or tree spirits, in “Princess Mononoke”; much of the cast of “Spirited Away,” which won the 2003 Oscar for best animated feature).

Even more have crept into American homes through video games and trading cards. Pokémon, the multibillion-dollar toy and video game empire, bases many of its characters on yokai. So does the most recent challenge to Pokémon’s cultural dominance, the best-selling video game and anime series “Yo-Kai Watch,” which makes no effort to hide its creative sources. All those monsters — altered and cuteified as they may be — have inspired fans to seek out the original texts.

“The students who come into the fields of Japanese literature and folklore as undergraduates are heavily influenced by popular culture,” Mr. Foster, a folklore professor at Indiana University and author of “Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai,” said. “They grow up with these things through anime and manga and want to know where they come from.”

Stories about yokai have been popular in Japan for centuries, from the 11th-century classic “The Tale of Genji,” in which they’re called mononoke, or “mysterious things,” to contemporary anime series. The yokai themselves are everywhere in Japan, in films and cartoons, on billboards and even on beer bottle labels. The latest yokai craze began in the 1980s and has been going strong ever since, part of a long history of booms that dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868). Last year, “Yo-Kai Watch” was the top-selling video game in Japan, and there are plans to release the game in the United States this year.

Relatively few of the thousands of texts and scholarly studies about yokai have been translated from Japanese, which makes these latest books all the more valuable to nonfluent seekers of the original tales. In “The Book of Yokai,” Mr. Foster draws from texts and folk tales dating back to Japan’s Heian period, from the works of the 10th-century writer Abe no Seimei (a midlevel bureaucrat who has been reborn in contemporary manga and anime as a young, beautifully androgynous sorcerer) to the tales of the early-20th-century scholar and avid story collector Kunio Yanagita, considered one of the founders of Japanese folklore studies.

New texts and stories are still being discovered and translated, and the abundance of source material can be a blessing and a curse for yokai researchers. How do you define a creature that can vary from period to period, or even town to town? “When I see yokai mentioned, it will often just say ‘a kappa is a so-and-so,’ ”
Mr. Foster said. “So my responsibility is really to complicate that, so that people will understand that a kappa can be many different things, depending on where and when you’re speaking of it.”

There are also beasts whose stories have been lost, but whose images remain, like the tofu-kozo, a bigheaded servant boy holding a block of uncooked tofu. “There’s a number of images of that, but nobody knows why they exist,” Mr. Foster said. “It might have been an Edo period advertising campaign, but that’s all speculation.”

Among the creepiest of yokai are the yurei, spirits of the dead who look nothing like typical Western ghosts. In “Yurei: The Japanese Ghost,” Mr. Davisson, a translator of a number of classic manga, profiles several yurei. Two of the most famous are the tragic Okiku, a young girl who threw herself down a well (or was thrown) after breaking one of her master’s prized dishes, and Oiwa, a hapless wife cursed with just about the worst husband ever (she is usually depicted with her left eye dripping down her cheek, the result of her spouse’s botched attempt to kill her with poison).



Yurei have inspired countless paintings and illustrations over the centuries, but perhaps the most influential is Maruyama Okyo’s “The Ghost of Oyuki” (1750), a portrait that the artist made of his recently deceased lover. Her ghost — long black hair, pale clothing, no feet — appeared to him in a dream, and his painting set the visual mold for every Japanese ghost to come, from paintings and prints to Kabuki characters and horror films. “After that painting,” Mr. Davisson said, “that’s how they all looked.”

Fans love tracking these evolutions over time, as well as learning every bit of information about as many yokai as they can. This might explain why a lot of these books, scholarly or not, have the look and feel of illustrated encyclopedias, with detailed descriptions of scores of creatures.

“When you look at pop culture in Japan today, a lot of it is really based on this desire to catalog, this sort of encyclopedic imagination,” said Bill Tsutsui, a Japanologist and author of “Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters.”

Why do the centuries-old monsters continue to fascinate, even for readers who don’t necessarily have a collector’s bent? “There’s the mystery of the world about them,” Mr. Tsutsui said. “You get that in this folkloric sense of the past: that the real world around us is beautiful and wonderful, and yet can be really horrible, too.”
- source : ROBERT ITO - NYT -

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- quote -
Scholar uncovers the fascinating history behind Japan’s folklore
AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Prefecture--
The secrets behind supernatural legends passed down through the generations are being uncovered thanks to folklorist Atsushi Oe.
Myths
involving monsters, ghosts, demons and other mysterious occurrences have typically been dismissed as nonsense in modern academic studies.
But members of the Research Institute of the East-Asian Mysterious and Marvelous Phenomenon, a group headed by 55-year-old Oe, devote their efforts to studies on such phenomena and creatures.
About 50 members include researchers at universities and museums around Japan, as well as novelist Natsuhiko Kyogoku, whose works are often inspired by “yokai” monsters and ghosts.

“We are an academic society of people who study strange stories in such fields as literature, history and folklore,” said Oe, a professor of ancient Japanese history and folkloristics at Sonoda Women’s University in this city just west of Osaka.

Oe studies the background of mysterious incidents recorded in old documents. He also conducts field research across Japan on folk tales involving gods, Buddhas and monsters.

“These stories appear a lot in old history books, but they used to be disregarded as a subject of scholastic research,” said Oe. “But, in fact, I believe that they can tell us more how people’s mentalities and society were shaped back then.” ...
... For the last few years, Oe has been working on collecting folk tales from Amagasaki.

One is about a “kappa,” an imaginary creature, which was spotted around a pond near a junior high school here. Another is an annual ritual held at a shrine, in which a meal is offered to the spirit of retired Emperor Sutoku, who visited the area while he was exiled in the Heian Period (794-1185).
A team made up of Oe, young researchers at Sonoda Women’s University and staff from the Amagasaki Municipal Archives has collected about 220 such anecdotes by visiting locations told in legends.
Out of those, 100 stories were compiled into a book, “100 tales of Amagasaki,” which was published in April to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Amagasaki’s designation as a city.
“However far-fetched it may sound, a folklore that has been passed down through the generations has the history of the land etched in it,” said Oe. “By exploring the origin of the tales, you may see your hometown in a different light.”
- source : Asahin shinbun, TSUTOMU MIYATAKE -

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- quote Japan Times -
Spooky beasts keep haunting Japan’s art
by John L. Tran
Seething masses of people crushed together in searing heat; empty-eyed wraiths, heads drooping in despair, shuffling to and fro — waiting for the time when they will be released their suffering. Tokyo can be hell in July and August. It isn’t all bad though; there’s an excellent exhibition on yōkai, the various devils, demons and spirits of Japanese folklore, at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.



As a subject of Japanese folkloric studies, yōkai have been defined in different ways, but could broadly be described as “supernatural creatures.” A fairly well-known example is the shapeshifting tanuki, the friendly racoon dog whose figure can often be seen outside restaurants and liquor stores in contemporary Japan. He appears in the exhibition smothering someone with his famously oversize scrotum in an 18th-century manga illustrated by Utagawa Toyokuni. Admittedly, suffocation by a giant pair of hairy balls is not the best way to go, but the manga is purposefully comic and what is evident from the substantial number and great variety of exhibits is that the iconography of yōkai is extremely versatile.
In “Screens of Hells and Paradise,” attributed to the Pure Land Buddhist Genshin (942-1017), .....
..... By contrast, there are several examples of relatively light-hearted taxonomies from the 18th and 19th century. Most likely influenced by the organizing principles of scientific classification introduced to Japan through rangaku (Dutch studies), these scrolls and handbooks of different types of monsters and goblins range from being crypto-medical manuals to ambiguous mixtures of schlock horror and comedic entertainment.
When bunmei kaika (enlightenment and civilization)
became a key objective of the Meiji government, yōkai were a hugely popular form of visual culture but were also marked for extinction. .....
..... The cute, harmless bestiary of “Yokai Watch” date from 2013, and the exhibition successfully shows that there is a long and extraordinary history of mixing the unnatural, comic and grotesque in Japanese visual culture. It is a justifiably popular exhibition, the only negative being the fact that you have to be careful when you choose to go. It can get monstrously crowded.
-source : japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/07/19 -


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- quote -
17 Female Ghosts & Demons in Japanese Folklore
Onryo　怨霊 / Hannya 般若
Kiyohime
Ame-onna / Hone-onna / Kuchisake-onna / Nure-onna / Yuki-onna
Yamauba / Yamanba
Uji No Hashihime
Oiwa, O-Iwa
Teke Teke
Sazae Oni
産女　Ubume / 姥ヶ火（うばがび）　Ubagabi
Rokurokubi
Jorōgumo
- source : notebookofghosts.com/2016-

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日本 - Encyclopædia of Monsters / Fabelwesen / 幻想動物の事典
Very extensive !!
- reference source : toroia.info/dict/index -


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. Yokai 妖怪 Monsters - Introduction - .
- Introduction -

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. - - - Join my Kappa friends on facebook ! - - - .

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- - yookai, yōkai 妖怪 Yokai monsters - ABC-Index -


. Kappa densetsu　河童伝説, Kappa minwa 河童民話 - Legends - Introduction .

. Mingei 民芸　Regional Folk　Art from Japan .


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