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Kitsunebi
狐火
Kitsunebi is a ghost-light yokai made by kitsune. The orbs appear at night across rural Japan and float above fields and mountain trails.
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KantoTohoku
江戸時代
Edo
1603 - 1868
Overview
Over 250 years of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. Japan was closed to the outside world, allowing a unique urban culture to flourish in Edo (Tokyo).
Significance
The era of Kabuki, Ukiyo-e, and the merchant class. High literacy rates led to a boom in publishing.
Yokai Context
The Golden Age of Yokai. Artists like Toriyama Sekien cataloged yokai in encyclopedias (Bestiaries). Yokai shifted from feared entities to sources of entertainment and collectibles.
Key Events
1776
Publication of Gazu Hyakki Yagyo
Toriyama Sekien's first yokai encyclopedia.
ConnectionStandardized the appearance of many yokai for the first time.
Yokai from Edo Period
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Konaki Jijii
子泣き爺
Konaki Jijii
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Shikoku
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Jorogumo
絡新婦
The Jorogumo is a giant spider yokai that can transform into a beautiful woman. It lures men into quiet places, seduces them, and then binds them in sticky webs to devour them later.
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Kanto
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Inugami
犬神
Inugami
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Shikoku
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Hyakume
百目
Hyakume is a fleshy, man-sized yokai covered head to foot in countless blinking yellow eyes. The hundred-eyed guardian lives in abandoned Japanese temples and watches for thieves at night.
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Isonade
磯撫
The Isonade is a giant shark-like sea yokai of western Japan. It strokes sailors off their boats with a barbed tail and carts them into the deep.
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Kyushu
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Dodomeki
百々目鬼
Dodomeki is a cursed Edo-period yokai woman whose long arms carry hundreds of tiny bird's-eye coins. She punishes the habit of theft.
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Kanto
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Itsuki
縊鬼
The Itsuki is a ghost yokai from Edo-period anecdote. It tells the living to hang themselves so it can finally leave the underworld and return to a new life.
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Kaichigo
貝児
The Kaichigo is a tsukumogami born from an old kaioke, the lacquered box used for the Heian shell-matching game. It appears as a small child who plays with the painted shells at night.
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Korouri
虎狼狸
Korouri is a chimeric plague yokai blamed for the deadly cholera epidemics of late Edo and early Meiji Japan. The beast appears in homes hit by cholera and in crowded towns.
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古戦場火
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Kosenjoubi
古戦場火
Kosenjoubi is a type of onibi, or ghost fire, that appears over old battlefields at night. The yokai is known for the mournful red flames that float across grassy plains where great battles once took place.
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狐者異
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Kowai
狐者異
Kowai is the ghost of a glutton from late Edo folklore. It appears near food stalls and garbage heaps with an appetite that never stops.
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