Bakemono no e, also known by its alternate title Bakemonozukushie, is a Japanese handscroll of the Edo period depicting 35 bakemono from Japanese folklore. The figures are hand-painted on paper in viv
Nurikabe from a scroll dated 1802 by Kanō Tōrin Yoshinobu (狩野洞琳由信) in the collection of Kōichi Yumoto.
1 Daisō (大僧) means "big monk". In most other scrolls and books, this image is labeled Mikoshi-nyūdō (見越し入道), and may or may not be the same yōkai. However, there is one other scroll, "Picture Scroll of One Hundred Demons", in which it is labeled Daisō.
2 Furaribi (ふらり火) means "aimless fire". This aimlessness is due to the troubled nature of the soul that has become a furaribi by undergoing some kind of unnatural suffering, such as mistakes in burial rites or cruel murder, and is now unable to move on to the next life. Furaribi is often depicted as a small flaming bird that can be easily confused for a fire or lantern in the distance.
3 Uwan (うわん) is a creature in Japanese folklore that is a disembodied voice. In most folktales it shouts out "Uwan," consequently frightening those who hear it. Uwan are typically found haunting old homes and abandoned temples. One of the main tales about uwan comes from Aomori Prefecture, and tells of how it yelled in an older couple's house all through the night, keeping them up and frightening them. Uwan had no physical form until the Edo period, when scrolls such as
The ushi-oni, or gyūki, is a yōkai from the folklore of western Japan. The folklore describes more than one kind of ushi-oni, but the depiction of a bovine-headed monster occurs in most. Ushi-oni gene
Bakemono no e
…humans and their blood. She is found in the regions of Kyūshū, Niigata and Fukushima. It is said that Nure-onna is married to or closely associated with Ushi-oni, and they work together as a team. Nure-onna hands her baby off to innocent strangers, then walks into the sea and disappears. The baby becomes incredibly…
Ushi-oni, from Bakemono no e scroll, Brigham Young University
"Ushi-oni" (うし鬼) from the Hyakkai Zukan by Sawaki Suushi
"Ushi-oni" (牛鬼) from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Sekien Toriyama
Nadeushi at the Ushijima Jinja in Sumida, Tokyo