Abura-akago油赤子
the oil baby
Edo catalogA ball of flame drifts into the house, settles by the andon lamp — and becomes a baby, lapping the lamp-oil with an infant's absorption; done, it turns back to fire and floats out.
Field-guide entries
In this wing
Abura-sumashi油すまし
the oil presser
RegionalOn the Kusazumigoe pass in Amakusa, a grandmother tells her grandchildren: "long ago, an abura-sumashi used to appear here" — and a voice answers from the empty pass: "I still do!" That perfectly timed punchline is essentially the entire attested folklore of the abura-sumashi — and it's enough: the yokai as jump-scare with impeccable comedic instincts.
Akurojin-no-hi悪路神の火
the fire of the bad-road god
RegionalIse Province, rainy nights, near Inokusa-ga-fuchi: a fire moving 60–90 cm above the ground, "like a lantern carried by someone" — carried by no one.
Anmoアンモ
the burn-scraper who also heals
RegionalThe Kitakami mountains' visitor: Anmo — hairy, strong-smelling, tengu-classed with a human-like face (and, oddly specific, "swollen abdomens...
Aoandon青行燈
the blue lantern spirit
Edo catalogThe aoandon is the ghost that ghost stories summon.
Aosaginohi青鷺火
the heron that glows
Edo catalogSome night-fires had feathers.
Bakotsu馬骨
the horse of bone and fire
RegionalFrom the Tosa Obake Zōshi scroll: a horse-demon — "a horse that became a spirit after being burned to death in a fire" — drawn confronting a toad-yokai inside a mosquito net.
Basan波山
the cold-fire rooster
RegionalIn the remote bamboo groves of Iyo lives a chicken the size of a turkey, comb blazing red, that breathes fire which is cold — a glowing spectral flame that ignites nothing.
Chōchinbi提灯火
the lantern procession with no procession
RegionalRows of lights where no road is: in Tokushima, "dozens of lantern fires appeared simultaneously, resembling illuminated electric bulbs in a row" — read as supernatural beings out with lanterns; foxes usually blamed.
Furaribiふらり火
the fire with an animal inside
Edo catalogA fire that has contents: a bird- or beast-form inside the flame — Sekien's version "a bird with features reminiscent of Garuda"; other scrolls give dog-faced birds ringed in fire (Hyakkai Zukan, Bakemono-zukushi lineage).
Gotokuneko五徳猫
the cat who tends the fire
Edo catalogBy the hearth, a two-tailed cat — nekomata anatomy on domestic duty — wears an iron gotoku (the trivet that holds kettles over the fire) upside-down on its head like a crown, and blows the embers to life with a bamboo fire-tube.
Hakanohi墓の火
the grave fire
ChronicleA flame blazing from a five-tiered stone pagoda carved with incomplete Sanskrit characters, in an overgrown graveyard — Sekien, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779).
Hikeshibaba火消婆
the crone who blows out the lamps
Edo catalogAn old woman who exists to make it dark: the hikeshibaba blows out household lanterns — at gatherings, or over travelers carrying their light home.
Hitodama人魂
the soul flame
ChronicleA ball of pale fire with a trailing tail, drifting from a house where someone is dying, toward the temple or toward a loved one's door.
Ikiryō生霊
the living ghost
ChronicleJapan's most psychologically acute ghost: the ikiryō leaves a living body — usually on the pressure of jealousy or grievance the person may not even acknowledge — and goes where the feeling points.
Janjanbiじゃんじゃん火
the fires that keep their appointments
RegionalNara's fireball — named for the "jan jan" sound it makes as it comes.
Kamiumi & Kuniumi神産み・国産み
the births of land and gods (grouped myth entry)
ChronicleThe two-stage founding: kuniumi — Izanagi and Izanami stir and birth the islands; kamiumi — they populate them with "natural deities (wind, wood, mountains, ocean gods)" — until the last birth: Kagutsuchi, fire, whose delivery burns Izanami to death.
Kanedama金霊
the money spirit
RegionalGold arriving as a spirit: Sekien's plate shows the kanedama visiting a virtuous household, filling the storehouse with coins — "heaven bestows fortune upon those performing good deeds".
Katawaguruma片輪車
the burning wheel and the taken child
RegionalA single ox-cart wheel wrapped in flame, rolling the night streets with a passenger — a beautiful woman, or a terrible man — cursing those who look.
Kazenbō火前坊
the monk before the fire
Edo catalogToribeyama — Kyoto's great funeral ground, where emperors and nobles were burned for a millennium — has its own flame.
Kechibiけち火
the fire with a face inside
RegionalKōchi's fireball — "the vengeful spirit of a deceased person transformed into flame," with the family's signature: a human face reportedly appears within the flames.
Kitsune狐
the fox
ChronicleThe fox is the most literarily documented of all Japanese supernatural creatures — Hearn wrote in 1894 that "vast is the literature of the subject of foxes...
Kitsune no Yomeiri狐の嫁入り
the fox's wedding
RegionalTwo of the tradition's gentlest mysteries share one name.
Kōjin荒神
the rough god of the hearth
RegionalThe kitchen's resident: Kōjin — "the rough god" — enshrined at the hearth, in his sanbō-kōjin form three-faced and six-armed, "displaying wrathful compassion similar to Fudō Myōō".
Kosenjōbi古戦場火
the old battlefield fire
Edo catalogOver the old battlefields: "countless gathering spirits" that "flutter and wander through the air" — the unquiet dead of combat, soldiers and animals, as flame.
Minobi蓑火
the raincoat fire
Edo catalogCrossing near Lake Biwa on a rainy night, fireballs bloom on your straw raincoat "like firefly light" — cold, sparkling "like twinkling stars," and — the signature — multiplying when brushed at.
Momiji紅葉
the witch of Togakushi
RegionalAutumn, Mt.
Ne-no-kuni根の国
the root land, address disputed
ChronicleThe "root land" — the otherworld where Susanoo rules after his descent.
Ōkuninushi大国主
the god who died twice and married the storm's daughter
ChronicleThe kind youngest brother of the Inaba hare tale pays for the princess's choice with two murders — his own: the brothers roll a red-hot boulder down a mountain disguised as a boar (he catches it; he burns to death) and later snap him inside a wedged log.
Onibi鬼火
the demon fire
RegionalThe umbrella term for Japan's demon-lights: fires "born from the corpses of humans and animals," or from "resentful people that have become fire".
Rōjinbi老人火
the old man's fire that water can't touch
Edo catalogDeep mountains, rainy nights, on the Shinano–Tōtōmi border: the rōjinbi — "old-person fire" — a flame that "appear along with an elderly person" — Ehon Hyaku Monogatari.
Sarakazoe皿数え
the counting made visible
Edo catalogSekien's contribution to the Okiku legend: the sarakazoe — "plate-counting" — depicts "the spirit of Okiku from the well appear as a yin fire, and the sound of plate-counting is heard".
Shiranui不知火
the unknown fire
ChronicleOn the calm nights around the late-seventh-month dark moon, in the shallow seas of Yatsushiro and Ariake (Kyūshū), a flame appears far out on the water — the oyabi, parent fire — then splits, and splits, until hundreds to thousands of flames stand in a line four to eight kilometers long. You cannot see them from a boat on the water; climb ten meters and they appear.
Shirouneri白溶裔
the dishcloth dragon
Edo catalogAn old kitchen dishcloth, gone gray with use, rises as a small ragged dragon of cloth — undulating ("yōei," the caption's word, means the way things billow in wind) through the house.
Sōgenbi叢原火
the burning monk's head
Picture onlyA ball of fire drifting the night streets of Kyoto — and inside the flame, "the anguishing face of the priest would float": a monk who stole from the Jizō hall of Mibu-dera and burns as karmic punishment.
The Tsurezure Bukuro Remainder百器徒然袋
the household parade's back rows (grouped entry)
RegionalSekien's fourth catalog runs 50 plates; the tradition has drafted its stars individually.
Tsurube-otoshi釣瓶落とし
the bucket-dropper
RegionalWalk under the wrong ancient tree at dusk and something drops — fast as a well bucket let go: a severed head, a bucket, a ball of fire, laughing as it hauls back up.
Ubagabi姥ヶ火
the old woman's fire
Edo catalogA fireball, about thirty centimeters, flying the rainy nights of Kawachi (Osaka) — the burning soul of an old woman who stole lamp oil from Hiraoka Shrine.
Ushi no Toki Mairi丑の時参り
the shrine visit at the hour of the ox
Edo catalogBetween 1 and 3 a.m.
Wanyūdō輪入道
the wheel monk
RegionalAn ox-cart wheel in flames, a man's shaved head at the hub, rolling the night roads between hell and here.