Yokai of Osaka

Records in Osaka

Karakasa-kozō

唐傘小僧（からかさこぞう）

An 1857 Osaka print shows a kabuki actor playing a one-legged umbrella monster — the clearest history of a yokai known through pictures rather than encounters.

Street · Road · House
Mixed

Danger 1/5 Editorial rating Danger rating 1 out of 5. This is an editorial rating, not a folklore measurement.

1857 Osaka Print or picture
Hirosada print of a kabuki actor as the one-legged umbrella

The red-cloaked man of a Tokyo rumour in February 1939, denied on the radio by the police and spread by schoolchildren across the capital, and the school-toilet Aka Manto of the 1980s who asks whether you want the red cloak or the blue.

Street · Other
Harmful

Danger 3/5 Editorial rating Danger rating 3 out of 5. This is an editorial rating, not a folklore measurement.

1939 Osaka Modern rumour
The red cloak reached Osaka by July; police went after street picture-show men who had used a red-cloaked magician

Places to visit in Osaka

Nuezuka, the Nue Mound 鵺塚（都島） Site Osaka (Miyakojima), Osaka — A small stone mound between the houses of Miyakojima, where the nue's body was said to have washed ashore and been buried.
Abe Seimei Shrine, Osaka 安倍晴明神社（大阪） Shrine or temple Osaka (Abeno), Osaka — The small shrine in Abeno that claims the diviner's birthplace, with his statue and the fox of his mother on the tablets.
Kuzunoha Inari Shrine, Shinoda Forest 信太森葛葉稲荷神社 Shrine or temple Izumi, Osaka — The shrine in what is left of Shinoda forest, where the fox wife of the tales looked at herself in the well and went home.

Places to Visit