#JLMyūreioftheday : Today’s ghost story is about Okiku, or the plate-counting ghost. According to Japanese folklore, there was once a beautiful maid named Okiku who worked for a samurai.
The samurai fell in love with her, but she always repelled his romantic advances. Desperate, the samurai tricked Okiku into believing that she broke one of the 10 ancestral plates in the samurai’s mansion, a crime punishable by death. Okiku counted the plates again and again to find the missing plate, but to no avail. She tearfully asked for forgiveness from the samurai, but he told her that unless she marries him, she will not be forgiven.
Despite this, Okiku still rejected him. The samurai then angrily pushed her down the well, where she drowned and died. It is said that from then on, she haunted the mansion, specifically the well. Her ghostly sobbing voice can be heard counting up to nine again and again. It is said that one needs to shout “ten!” after she says “nine” to make it stop. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Let’s start off our #JLMyureioftheday series with a yurei called ubume. Ubume are said to be the ghosts of women who died during childbirth.
During their haunting, they carry bundle of cloth that is supposedly their baby, and ask a stranger for help by carrying it for them. Afterwards, the ubume will disappear, leaving the stranger with the baby, which would turn out to be just very heavy rocks. They usually appear with a topless/naked torso and a red skirt stained with lots of blood. #japanloverme#JLMhalloween ❤️ Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Tanuki are considered as powerful magical creatures, much like the kitsune (foxes), which are basically their rivals in magic and mischief.
Tanuki are generally jolly, playful, and loves to have a good time playing tricks on humans. They also like to shape shift, and their most notable feature is their giant testicles which can shapeshift into anything they want (an umbrella, a parachute, a cart, etc)
They also love to drink and eat tons of food. In fact, sometimes they can even possess a human, causing the human to eat and eat and eat until they pass out. Tanuki possess humans either to punish them for violating nature, or more often, just for the sake of pranks. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Today’s#JLMyōkaioftheday is a bit scarier than the rest: the te-no-me The te-no-me comes in the form of a blind old man that literally has no eyes on his face.
Instead, his eyes are on his palms!
He often roams in graveyards, where he is said to hunt for humans. He is allegedly incredibly fast, and his very strong sense of smell makes up for his lack of eyes on his head. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Tsuchinoko is a mythical creature in Japan that resembles a very fat and short snake. Legend has it that it can talk and likes to lie or make up stories. It is also said that it loves to drink alcohol.
Sometimes, it swallows its own tail to form a round form and “roll around like a wheel”. Imagine seeing a fat round rolling snake!#japanloverme Art by @chichilittle
Sunekosuri is a small, plump, furry, dog-like yōkai that likes to run between the legs of a walking person. It especially likes to rub or snuggle against a person’s legs when it’s raining, as if cuddling or looking for warmth.
Although harmless and generally cute, it can cause people to trip on it while walking. (much like a regular dog would lol) #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
#JLMyōkaioftheday Raijū, the legendary creature who is the companion of Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning. ⚡️
It can sometimes take the form of a wolf, a cat, a fox, or a weasel. It can shoot and conduct electric bolts, and turn itself into a ball of lightning, but is generally harmless when tame.
It is said that it loves to sleep atop s sleeping person’s belly, and when Raijin needs to wake it up, he shoots a lightning bolt to it, which of course harms the sleeping person too! That’s why in superstition, it is advised to sleep facing sideways or down, especially during thunderstorms. ⛈ Which pop culture character does the raijū remind you of? ☺️⚡️ #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Kappa are amphibians in nature, but they are more dangerous when in water than in land. They swim very fast and are known to trap humans by pulling them deeper underwater.
On land however, they are somewhat clumsy, often moving carefully to avoid spilling the water on the top of their heads, which give them energy. They love playing games and can be very courteous, so one way to trick them to spill their water is to bow to them, which makes them bow back, spilling their precious water.
After outsmarting them, you gain their admiration and friendship, and kappa are known to be loyal friends once befriended. Aside from human intestines, they also love cucumbers. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
It is said that a second mouth grows at the back of the head of a woman due to a curse that often targets girls who eat so timidly and so little. Her hair would then act as hands to feed this 2nd mouth, which is almost always hungry, and demands A LOT of food.
One of the most famous yōkai is the rokurokubi, which is a woman who can magically elongate her neck at night to scare men, or to find lamp oil to eat. A nukekubi is a variant of the rokurokubi, but her head detaches instead, and is usually deadly and vampiric in nature.
#JLMyōkaioftheday : Jinmenju, or the tree with fruits that have faces
It is said that the fruits of jinmenju have such a shallow sense of humor, they will actually laugh at almost everything.
In fact, they spend most of their time laughing! And if you slice one open, you’ll find that their seeds also have faces on them, which are laughing as well. #LOL#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Did you know that there’s a Japanese version of the Loch Ness monster too?
Issie is a Japanese lake monster that is said to live in Lake Ikeda on the island of Kyushu. According to the myth, Issie was a white female horse that lived on the island with its little foal.
One day, her foal was stolen by a samurai, and after being unable to find it, Issie jumped off a cliff into the lake in despair.
Her grief transformed her into a black cryptid monster with two humps on its back, which resurfaces every now and then to try to find her lost foal. #JLMyōkaioftheday#japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
Although mostly harmless, noppera-bō are known for tricking and scaring humans by imitating someone else’s face, then wiping it off to reveal a smooth, featureless blank surface. Their victims are often tricksters, stubborn people, and most especially, unfaithful lovers. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
#JLMyōkaioftheday : Tenko , or “Heavenly/celestial nine-tailed fox” ✨✨
When a kitsune (fox yōkai) grows its ninth tail, it becomes a “kyūbi no kitsune”, one of the most powerful legendary yōkai in Japanese mythology.
Then, when it reaches 1000 years, it becomes even more powerful than that (and also turns gold)! It becomes a tenko. ✨
Tenko is the highest rank of foxes, and can ascend to the heavens and can command or punish lower-ranked kitsune. It can also possess a human being and grant that person divine spiritual powers. ✨#japanloverme art by @littlemisspaintbrush
With a trunk and tusks like an elephant, feet like a tiger’s, and tail like an ox’s, the baku is a legendary yōkai that protects people from nightmares, by devouring bad dreams.
If a person wakes up and doesn’t remember what their dream was, or if they don’t remember having a dream at all, it is said that they must have had a nightmare and that the baku ate it.
In some areas in Japan, children are even taught to chant “Baku-san, please eat my dreams” if they get scared of nightmares! ✨But be careful though, because asking the help of the baku too much may result in it devouring even your hopes and dreams, leaving you empty inside. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
The onikuma is a bear yōkai who lives deep in forests and mountains, rarely seen by humans. It only comes out of hiding to snatch livestock, which is its primary food source.
It is said that the onikuma is extremely large and strong, and can carry both a cow and a horse on its back! When its home in the mountains is threatened, it launches large round boulders down the slope to harm its attackers. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush
If you see a lady with pale skin, ghostly eyes, and long hair, standing in the rain, and holding an umbrella, there’s a chance that she might be an ame-onna.
The ame-onna is said to roam during rainy days, looking for a victim to take to the spirit world with her (get spirited away).
It is said that children are usually taken by the ame-onna, but there are also tales of adult men and women last seen sharing an umbrella with a ghostly lady, never to be seen again. #japanloverme Art by @littlemisspaintbrush