Sources and Citation Policy

How this site uses sources

Every published yokai article cites at least two sources from the registry below, and where possible at least one primary text or public-institution collection. Citations are managed centrally: articles reference registry entries by ID, so a correction to a source propagates to every article that uses it.

What we rely on

Academic databases such as the International Research Center for Japanese Studies’ Database of Folklore and Yokai Phenomena, which indexes individual collected accounts by region and period.
Library and museum collections, including the National Diet Library Digital Collections, for historical texts and images.
Primary and near-primary texts, from Edo-period compendia to early literary retellings such as Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan (1904).
Academic scholarship — papers and monographs on specific motifs and regional traditions.

Citation principles

Individual database records describe one telling from one place. We do not generalize a single local account into a nationwide fact.
Literary retellings (like Hearn’s) are treated as literature built on oral tradition, and identified as such.
Editorial devices — danger ratings, comparative statistics — are never attributed to sources. They are our own summaries.
When scholarship offers an interpretation (for example, links between kappa lore and water-deity belief), we present it as interpretation.

Registry

Academic paper On the use and embellishment of folk tradition in Mizuki Shigeru's work (external link) Aichi Gakuin University Repository Accessed: 2026-08-22 Quotes the Sōgō Nihon Minzoku Goi entry and separates the recorded tradition from what later popular versions added.
Primary text Tōno Monogatari (遠野物語) (external link) Yanagita Kunio (1910); Aozora Bunko edition Accessed: 2026-07-28 Tale 17 records a spirit of old Tōno houses often seen as a child of about twelve or thirteen, sounds in an empty room, and prosperity tied to the spirit's presence.
Academic paper 005-0384: Tamura and Suzuka print notes (external link) Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University (ArtWiki) Accessed: 2026-10-15 Dates Tamura no Sōshi to the mid-to-late Muromachi period and describes Suzuka Gozen deceiving Ōtakemaru and taking his three swords.
Museum Fujiwara no Hidesato and the giant centipede (external link) Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University Accessed: 2026-08-20 The sequence of the tale: the serpent lying across Seta bridge, the giant centipede of Mount Mikami, and the treasures from the dragon palace.
Reliable secondary Noh appreciation: Sesshōseki (external link) Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University Accessed: 2026-10-15 The Noh plot of Retired Emperor Toba, the exposure, the flight to Nasu, and the stone.
Academic paper The Sesshō-seki legend (external link) Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University (ArtWiki) Accessed: 2026-10-15 The fox's transformation into a stone is not yet in the Tamamo-no-Mae Monogatari of 1470 and is said to have been added in the Noh Sesshōseki.
Academic paper The Shuten-dōji legend (external link) Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University Accessed: 2026-10-15 Names the Ōeyama Ekotoba in the Itsuō Art Museum as the oldest surviving work; summarises the divine sake, the star helmet, and the flying head.
Primary text The Tale of the Heike, digital exhibition (external link) National Archives of Japan Accessed: 2026-08-04 The Nue episode: a creature in black cloud over the palace, the emperor's illness, and Minamoto no Yorimasa's arrow. A medieval war tale, not a record of a living animal.
Museum Exhibition on monster-slaying tales (妖怪退治伝) (external link) National Archives of Japan Accessed: 2026-08-04 Exhibition material on illustrated versions of monster-slaying narratives.
Museum Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Sōma no Furudairi (The Old Palace at Sōma), triptych (external link) The British Museum Accessed: 2026-10-15 Triptych of about 1845–46; Takiyasha summons a skeleton at the old Sōma palace.
Museum Hakutaku hikai zu print (external link) British Museum Accessed: 2026-08-03 A printed sheet of the charm, of the kind produced for household use.
Museum Rashōmon Emaki cultural property record (external link) Agency for Cultural Affairs heritage database Accessed: 2026-08-03 An eighteenth-century scroll with a different Ushi-oni narrative involving Minamoto no Yorimitsu.
Academic paper Those who saw the kasha (external link) CiNii Research Accessed: 2026-10-19 The fire cart in Heian and Kamakura rebirth tales, tied to sin and deathbed practice.
Library Hyakki Yagyō Shūi, three volumes (external link) CiNii Books Accessed: 2026-07-30 Bibliographic record for editions and holdings of the three-volume supplementary work.
Primary text Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会), c. 1712 (external link) Center for Open Data in the Humanities Accessed: 2026-08-02 Digitized copy of Terajima Ryōan's illustrated encyclopedia. The hihi entry compiles older Chinese descriptions: human-shaped, black-haired, long-lipped, strong, fast, and laughing with its upper lip over its eyes.
Museum Isonade illustration from Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-08-03 The 1841 woodblock image, showing the raised tail and its row of hooks.
Library Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, volume 2 (NDL scan) (external link) Wikimedia Commons; National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-10-09 Full scan of the 1805 printing's middle volume, with the Kyōrinrin and Boroboroton plates and captions.
Library Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, volume 3 (NDL scan) (external link) Wikimedia Commons; National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-10-09 Full scan of the 1805 printing's last volume, with the Choko-boro and Seto-taishō spread.
Museum Kawa-akago, from Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-08-13 The plate itself: a small infant-shaped creature rising from the water plants of a mountain river, watching an angler on a raft. Sekien's caption guesses it belongs with the kawatarō and kawawarawa.
Museum Seto-taishō by Toriyama Sekien (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-10-09 The 1784 plate of a warrior assembled from flasks, plates, bowls, a teapot, and a large kettle.
Museum Yanari by Toriyama Sekien (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-10-15 The 1776 plate of small oni gathered under the eaves and posts of a house; no caption.
Museum Hihi illustration from Wakan Sansai Zue (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-08-02 The woodblock illustration accompanying the encyclopedia entry.
Database Reference case on Ushi-oni and Nure-onna materials in Shimane (external link) Collaborative Reference Database, National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-08-03 Librarian-compiled survey of the regional sources for the pairing.
Database On the tale of Tawara Tōda and the centipede (external link) Collaborative Reference Database, National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-08-20 Traces the story from the Taiheiki into later otogizōshi, including the arrow wetted with saliva and the variation in what the rewards were.
Database What does 'Tsuchigumo' refer to? (external link) Collaborative Reference Database, National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-08-21 Establishes that in the ancient sources the word names regional groups the Yamato court treated as outsiders, not a giant spider.
Primary text Bencao Gangmu (本草綱目) by Li Shizhen (external link) Chinese Text Project Accessed: 2026-08-14 Volume 42 carries the Suiko entry, quoting the Xiangmian ji: a river creature the size of a three or four year old, armoured in scales like a pangolin's, arrow-proof, showing only its tiger-pawed knees above the water.
Primary text Bowuzhi (博物志), volume 2 (external link) Chinese Text Project Accessed: 2026-08-12 The older Chinese jiaoren: dwellers of the southern sea who live in water like fish, never stop weaving, and weep pearls. No Totaro, no bridge, no banishment — a separate and earlier motif.
Database Classical usages of 狒 (feifei) (external link) Chinese Text Project Accessed: 2026-08-02 Occurrences of the character in classical Chinese texts, the tradition the encyclopedia entry draws on.
Primary text Shiji (史記), Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices (external link) Chinese Text Project Accessed: 2026-08-16 Early record in the lineage describing vapour at the coast that takes the appearance of towers and terraces.
Library Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki digitized copy (external link) Cultural Japan; Kyushu University Accessed: 2026-08-02 Sekien's 1779 book, where the Nobusuma caption identifies it as a flying squirrel.
Academic paper Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō: background and contents (external link) Jörg Ebenschwanger; Bunka/Hihyō 1 (Osaka University), 2009 Accessed: 2026-09-25 Notes that most of the fifty-one entries in the first collection carry a name and little or no explanatory text. Also reads the Biwa-bokuboku plate as a blind biwa priest feeling his way, with a proposed link to the Tsurezuregusa episode of the lost Genjō.
Museum Hell Scroll (Jigoku Zōshi) (external link) National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, e-Museum Accessed: 2026-10-19 Twelfth-century hell paintings with their wardens.
Museum Sawaki Sūshi, Hyakkai Zukan (百怪図巻), 1737 (external link) Fukuoka City Museum Accessed: 2026-10-19 A 1737 scroll of thirty named yokai, each with only its name written in; the colophon says it copies an original by Kano Motonobu. Includes Otoroshi.
Reliable secondary Lecture material on okuri-ōkami traditions (external link) Fukuoka City Archaeology Center Accessed: 2026-08-02 Public lecture material surveying escorting-animal traditions.
Library Hyakki Yagyō holding record (external link) Tokyo University of the Arts Library Accessed: 2026-08-03 Library catalogue record for a copy of the picture book.
Primary text Lafcadio Hearn, Shadowings (1900): The Gratitude of the Samébito (external link) Project Gutenberg Accessed: 2026-08-12 Hearn's English retelling. Tawaraya Totaro meets a Shark-Man banished from the Dragon Palace on the Long Bridge of Seta, shelters him, and is repaid in tears that harden into jewels. Hearn attributes the story to a book he names Kibun-Anbaiyoshi.
Primary text Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things — “Mujina” (external link) Lafcadio Hearn (1904); Project Gutenberg edition Accessed: 2026-07-23 Hearn's retelling of a Tokyo (Akasaka) faceless-encounter tale. A literary retelling of oral tradition, not a fieldwork transcript; treat details as Hearn's framing.
Primary text Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things — “Yuki-Onna” (external link) Lafcadio Hearn (1904); Project Gutenberg edition Accessed: 2026-07-24 Hearn's influential literary retelling of a Musashi Province tradition; do not treat its marriage and broken-promise plot as universal.
Reliable secondary Inō Mononoke-roku and Intei Mononoke-roku (external link) Hiroshima Prefecture Accessed: 2026-10-15 Heitarō unmoved through the month of July, until the visitors withdraw.
Academic paper Traversing the Natural, Supernatural, and Paranormal: Yōkai in Postwar Japan (external link) Hirota Ryūhei; Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 48/2 (2021) Accessed: 2026-10-15 Gashadokuro was fabricated by Saitō Morihiro in 1966 and taken into Mizuki's 1968 collection, with no historical record before the late sixties.
Academic paper Contents tourism, chapter on Tokushima fieldwork (external link) Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers Accessed: 2026-08-25 Interviews in Tokushima, Takeda Akira's records, and the local rediscovery of a creature that imitates a child's crying.
Museum About The Tale of the Heike (external link) Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History Accessed: 2026-08-04 Explains the textual history and the existence of many variant versions.
Library Hokusō Sadan (北窓瑣談), 1829 printing (external link) Ibaraki University Digital Collections Accessed: 2026-08-02 Digitized copy of the Edo-period essay collection containing the account.
Academic paper The Contemporary Use of the Re-Creation of Yokai (external link) Ichikawa Hiroya; Bijutsu Kyōikugaku Kenkyū 50 (2018) Accessed: 2026-10-15 Notes that the giant skeleton in Kuniyoshi's Sōma no Furudairi was given the name gashadokuro in the 1960s yokai books.
Fieldwork collection Ishikawa Jun'ichirō, Hinoemata mukashibanashi-shū, in Ashinaka no. 70 (1960) (external link) Ashinaka Accessed: 2026-08-18 A mountain hut in Hinoemata, Fukushima. A creature warms itself at the fire and names each thought the old man has, until a stick of firewood pops of its own accord and startles it. Consulted in the printed issue; no stable public URL recorded.
Academic paper The Formation of Tengu Imagery through the Late Twelfth Century (天狗のイメージ生成について) (external link) Ito Nobuhiro; National Diet Library Digital Collections Accessed: 2026-07-24 Academic study of how tengu imagery developed in medieval sources.
Museum Hanging scroll, Hakutaku hikai zu (白澤避怪図) (external link) Iwate Prefectural Museum Accessed: 2026-08-03 A painted Hakutaku kept as a charm against misfortune, catalogued with the "warding off strangeness" title the images carried.
Museum The Jorōgumo of Jōren Falls (external link) Izu City Museum Accessed: 2026-07-28 Local cultural-history introduction to the spider legend associated with Jōren Falls.
Academic paper Factors in rumour transmission by mode of transmission (external link) Japan Association for Social Informatics Accessed: 2026-10-19 Uses a 1979 questionnaire to suggest the rumour was passed on partly as a game of wanting to be scared.
Academic paper A study of change in "inugami" belief in postwar Kōchi Prefecture (external link) Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology; J-STAGE Accessed: 2026-08-02 Academic treatment of how the belief and its social effects changed after the war.
Reliable secondary Kodama / Kodama (木霊・木魂) (external link) The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation Accessed: 2026-07-29 Defines the tree-spirit and echo senses and explains their traditional connection.
Academic paper Current state and problems in Hakutaku research (external link) Kansai University Academic Repository Accessed: 2026-08-03 Survey of the scholarship, covering the transmission from China and the divergence of the surviving images.
Academic paper The Birth of the Kasha (external link) Katsuda Itaru; Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History 174 Accessed: 2026-10-19 From the Buddhist fire cart of the dying to a creature that snatches corpses from funerals; thunderstorms as the sign of damnation in the Muromachi period; thunder stealing bodies by the late sixteenth century; Zen monks defeating it; the cat identification from about the late seventeenth century, alongside tanuki, tengu, and mōryō.
Museum Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, Yō volume (external link) Kawasaki City Museum Archive Accessed: 2026-10-15 The Yō volume of the 1776 book, carrying the Yanari and Ubume spread.
Museum Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, middle volume (external link) Kawasaki City Museum Archive Accessed: 2026-09-25 The middle volume, carrying Koto-furunushi and Biwa-bokuboku, Kyōrinrin, and Boroboroton with Hahakigami.
Museum Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, last volume (external link) Kawasaki City Museum Archive Accessed: 2026-10-09 The last volume of the 1805 printing, carrying Choko-boro and Seto-taishō.
Academic paper Sumo and Kappa Folklore (相撲と河童伝承) (external link) Kim Yongui Accessed: 2026-07-23 Academic discussion of the sumo-challenge motif in kappa tradition.
Museum Hakutaku, the numinous beast — exhibition commentary (external link) Koga Historical Museum, Koga City Accessed: 2026-08-03 Municipal museum account of the creature's Chinese origin, its meeting with the Yellow Emperor, and its use in Japan as a protective image.
Academic book Oni (external link) Kokugakuin University, Encyclopedia of Shinto Accessed: 2026-10-19 Three types of oni — evil spirits, foreigners or strangers, and good kami — the first initially invisible and only later given visible form.
Reliable secondary Kodama (木霊) (external link) Kotobank Accessed: 2026-07-29 Dictionary aggregation for the word's tree-spirit and echo meanings.
Academic paper Yokai Given Form — Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (external link) Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Faculty of Humanities Accessed: 2026-08-02 Academic discussion of how Sekien's prints fixed visual forms for named yokai.
Museum Fukutomi Zōshi and otogi-zōshi picture scrolls (external link) Kyoto National Museum Accessed: 2026-08-21 Exhibition context for Tsuchigumo Zōshi as a tale of Yorimitsu and his four retainers.
Reliable secondary Nue Pond monument (鵺池碑) (external link) City of Kyoto Accessed: 2026-08-04 A Kyoto monument attached to the Nue narrative.
Museum New Year's Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji (external link) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Accessed: 2026-08-02 Museum record for Hiroshige's circa-1857 print and its distinct Ōji tradition of foxes, foxfire, Inari worship and harvest prediction.
Museum “One-Legged Umbrella Monster” (Kasa ippon ashi), 1857 (external link) Gosōtei Hirosada; The Metropolitan Museum of Art Accessed: 2026-08-03 An Osaka woodblock print of a kabuki actor performing a one-legged umbrella monster with one leg bound. A theatrical role, not an encounter record.
Academic paper Suzuka Pass and Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (external link) Yamada Yūji; Mie University repository Accessed: 2026-10-15 The Suzuka mountain legend in medieval otogi-zōshi and Noh, and Suzuka Gozen's help in Tamura no Sōshi.
Reliable secondary Inō Mononoke-roku (external link) Miyoshi City Accessed: 2026-10-15 Real people and places of mid-Edo Miyoshi, and the variation among versions.
Museum Inō Mononoke-roku: the yokai story of Miyoshi (external link) Miyoshi Mononoke Museum Accessed: 2026-10-15 From 1 July 1749, sixteen-year-old Inō Heitarō of Miyoshi endured a month of nightly visitations; versions changed as the story spread.
Museum Raijū-zu (雷獣図), Edo period (external link) Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum Accessed: 2026-08-02 Museum exhibition record of an Edo-period painting of the creature.
Museum Yokai that live in the house, no. 149: Bakezōri (external link) Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Museum Accessed: 2026-09-04 A separate Ise explanation tied to a household careless with footwear; not the same tradition as the Nichibun scroll figure.
Reliable secondary Our Yoshinogawa, volume 15 (external link) Tokushima River and National Highway Office, MLIT Accessed: 2026-08-25 Survey work in Yamashiro and the Konaki-jiji stone statue, as modern reception rather than evidence of where the tradition began.
Primary text Bunbuku Chagama and Morinji (external link) Sōtō Zen Morinji Temple Accessed: 2026-08-02 Morinji's official account of Shukaku, the inexhaustible kettle used in 1570, his revealed mujina or tanuki form, his 1587 departure and the later fairy tale.
Primary text History of Morinji (external link) Sōtō Zen Morinji Temple Accessed: 2026-08-02 The temple's history connecting founder Dairin Shōtsū, Shukaku and Morinji's establishment in Tatebayashi.
Library Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会), volume 45, dragons and serpents (external link) National Archives of Japan Accessed: 2026-08-16 Consulted for the competing explanations of shin as a dragon-kind creature and as a giant clam. Consulted in the archive's own copy; no stable public URL recorded.
Reliable secondary Ippon-datara, Nara Yokai Shimbun (external link) Nara Prefecture Accessed: 2026-08-19 Composite of southern Nara traditions: a large body, one leg, sometimes one eye, and the suggestion that mountain ascetics were mistaken for it.
Reliable secondary The origin of Azuki-arai — why does it wash azuki beans? (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-31 Bibliographic record for a scholarly discussion of the bean-washing motif and its origins.
Library Cats Everywhere in Books (結構毛だらけネコ本だらけ) (external link) National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-07-25 Exhibition surveying cats in Japanese books and popular visual culture.
Library Kagoshima Prefectural Library inquiry concerning Ittan-momen (external link) National Diet Library Collaborative Reference Database Accessed: 2026-07-25 Reference inquiry identifying sources for the Kagoshima tradition.
Library Reference inquiry into the textual basis of Jorōgumo stories (external link) National Diet Library Collaborative Reference Database Accessed: 2026-07-28 Reviews sources behind widely repeated Jorōgumo descriptions and cautions against unsupported combinations.
Library Reference case on Shikoku inugami material (external link) National Diet Library Collaborative Reference Database Accessed: 2026-08-02 Librarian-compiled bibliography of sources on the belief.
Library Researching the many legends of Suzuka Gozen (external link) Collaborative Reference Database, National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-10-15 Reference record pointing to Tamura no Sōshi, where Tamuramaro defeats the demon Ōtakemaru with Suzuka Gozen's help.
Library Edo no ningyo-tachi (江戸の人魚たち) (external link) National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-08-15 Survey of Edo-period ningyo material and of the Happyaku Bikuni and Shiro Bikuni traditions. Consulted in the library's own edition; no stable public URL recorded.
Library Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (絵本百物語), 1841 (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-08-03 The illustrated collection carrying the Isonade account of a shark-like creature in the western sea that attacks with its tail.
Library How the otherworld and its beings were drawn (external link) National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-10-15 The Ōeyama mansion, the banquet, and the drunken oni killed by Raikō's band.
Academic paper A Comparative Study of Funayūrei from the Perspective of Maritime Folklore (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-29 Academic comparative discussion of funayūrei traditions.
Library Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (画図百鬼夜行) (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-29 Bibliographic record for the historical picture book associated with Sekien's kodama image.
Library Gazu Hyakki Yagyō bibliographic record (画図百鬼夜行) (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-08-03 Bibliographic record for Sekien's 1776 picture book.
Library Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (百鬼徒然袋), 3 volumes (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-09-25 Bibliographic record for an 1805 printing; notes the original edition of 1784.
Library Kappa Monogatari (河童物語) (external link) National Diet Library Digital Collections Accessed: 2026-07-23 Historical kappa narrative material held by the National Diet Library.
Library Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki bibliographic record (今昔畫圖續百鬼) (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-29 Bibliographic record for Sekien's 1779 picture book.
Library Finding magazine articles on the Kuchisake-onna rumour of spring–summer 1979 (external link) National Diet Library Search (Kagawa Prefectural Library) Accessed: 2026-10-19 Reference record dating the nationwide spread of the rumour to spring and summer 1979.
Reliable secondary Yokai Hyakunin Isshu and Mikoshi-nyūdō (external link) National Diet Library Monthly Bulletin 770 Accessed: 2026-07-31 National Diet Library discussion of historical Mikoshi-nyūdō imagery.
Library Hyakki Yagyō, three volumes and three supplementary volumes (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-30 Bibliographic record for the multi-volume publication containing the supplementary work.
Primary text Mokumokuren in Hyakki Yagyō Shūi, lower volume, frame 6 (external link) National Diet Library Digital Collections Accessed: 2026-07-30 Digitized 1805 printing containing Sekien's image and caption; the work was first published in 1781 and the caption makes a pun on the eyes of Go.
Academic paper Differences in the other world: comparing Otogi-bōko and Jiandeng Xinhua (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-09-25 Bibliographic record for a 2025 study comparing Asai Ryōi's 1666 adaptations with the Chinese collection they came from.
Library Toriyama Sekien's Illustrated Night Parade of the Demon Horde (external link) National Diet Library Image Bank Accessed: 2026-08-14 Overview of Sekien's four illustrated collections, including the 1781 Konjaku Hyakki Shūi that carries the Shinkirō plate.
Library Kitsunebi in the National Diet Library's Toriyama Sekien image collection (external link) National Diet Library Image Bank Accessed: 2026-08-02 Library exhibition index identifying Kitsunebi among the yokai illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.
Library The World of Yokai through Toriyama Sekien's Yokai Encyclopedias (external link) National Diet Library Image Bank Accessed: 2026-07-25 Surveys rokurokubi images by multiple artists, including female and male examples.
Library Yokai drawn by Toriyama Sekien (external link) National Diet Library Image Bank Accessed: 2026-08-02 Later visualizations; not evidence that collected accounts agreed on a shape.
Library Chapter 1: Setsubun and bean-throwing (external link) National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-10-19 Tsuina by 706; the hōsōshi drove out invisible plague oni, but by the late Heian period was himself treated as the oni and chased out; bean-throwing with "oni out, fortune in" recorded in 1447.
Library Tabi to Densetsu (旅と伝説) (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-08-03 The folklore periodical carrying the 1929 Mizuho account, in volume 2 number 7.
Library Tōno Monogatari bibliographic record (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-07-28 Bibliographic record for Yanagita Kunio's 1910 collection.
Library Tsurezuregusa section 89 and the nekomata (external link) National Diet Library Accessed: 2026-07-31 Discusses the older mountain-nekomata rumor and the story's mistaken-identity ending; it does not describe an old household cat or two tails.
Library Wakan Sansai Zue (倭漢三才図会) bibliographic record (external link) National Diet Library Search Accessed: 2026-08-02 Catalogue record establishing the work, its compiler, and its dating.
Museum A Tale of Expelling the Demon: The Shutendōji Picture Scroll (external link) Nezu Museum Accessed: 2026-10-15 The tale appeared in the fourteenth century and spread through picture scrolls and Nara ehon; tradition divides over Mt. Ōe and Mt. Ibuki.
Academic paper Misinformation in the SNS era and mass-media corrections (external link) NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute; Hōsō Kenkyū to Chōsa 68/11 Accessed: 2026-10-19 Cites Kuchisake-onna as the classic urban legend that spread explosively among schoolchildren in 1978–79.
Fieldwork collection Akago no nakigoe (赤子の泣声), Arida, Wakayama (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-13 Collected 1960, published 1961. Crying is heard from the Naki-kawa and stops after a Shin sect priest recites sutra. A separate record from Sekien's plate, not the same creature under another name.
Fieldwork collection Ao-bōzu, record 0470088 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Takeda Akira, "Yokai and ghost stories of Miai, Kotonami, Nakatado", Kagawa no Minzoku 41 (1984), p. 4. A girl carrying lunch to a mountain field is asked "Won't you hang yourself?"; she refuses and he vanishes.
Fieldwork collection Azuki-washing sound beneath a bridge in Ehime, record 0200280 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A regional account published in 1978 that places the sound under a bridge on a rainy night.
Fieldwork collection Azuki-togi and Azuki-arai account from Kitasaku, Nagano, record 2180714 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 The adopted 1938 account: a sound like azuki beans being washed comes from the water's edge, where people say a strange being makes it.
Fieldwork collection Azuki-arai wearing a black head cloth, Nagano, record 2181770 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A visible regional form published in 1943; not the appearance given in the sound-only Kitasaku record.
Fieldwork collection Unseen Azuki-arai account from Ōita, record C4410037-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A regional account published in 1986 in which the source of the bean-washing sound cannot be seen.
Fieldwork collection Azuki-arai and a vanishing boy from Suwa, Nagano, record 2181773 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A distinct account published in 1943: an old man meets a boy whose patterned clothing is visible in darkness; the boy disappears when addressed, and the bean-washing sound is heard on the return journey.
Database Bakemono-zukushi Emaki (化物尽絵巻) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-10-19 A twenty-three-figure scroll of monsters including "odoroshi."
Museum Image of nine dancing bakeneko (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 Catalogue record demonstrating the dancing-cat motif in historical imagery.
Fieldwork collection Cat and bakeneko belief from Nanao, Ishikawa, record 1230533 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A local belief connecting an aging cat with transformation into a bakeneko.
Fieldwork collection Bakeneko belief from Okinawa, record 0640356_003 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A regional example associating age with a cat gaining the power to transform.
Museum Bakeneko standing in human clothing (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 Catalogue record for a historical image of a transformed cat in human dress.
Fieldwork collection Thirty-year-old cat account from Tashiro Island, record 2240078 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 Describes a long-kept cat reciting jōruri and transforming into a warrior.
Database Sandal and straw-cloak waraji, U426_nichibunken_0154_0078_0000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 A sandal monster covered in yellow straw, with a waraji for a face, astride a horse-head staff, animal-like limbs showing below the hem.
Fieldwork collection Betobeto-san, card C0410979-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-22 Uda district, Yamato. Walking alone at night you hear a bita-bita footfall behind you; step aside and say "Betobeto-san, please go ahead" and it stops. Sourced to the Sōgō Nihon Minzoku Goi of 1956.
Fieldwork collection Bunbuku Chagama and related tanuki accounts, record 1232860 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 A 1935 Gunma record and related examples showing how the performing-kettle tale and the Shukaku temple tradition developed in distinct retellings.
Database Chōchin no obake (ちうちんのおばけ), U426_nichibunken_0073_0021_0000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 A lantern with an eye and a mouth, something appearing to come out of the mouth. One figure on Yoshimori's sheet Shinban Bakemono-zukushi.
Fieldwork collection Funayūrei account from Ehime, record 0200237 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 The adopted account: a damaged boat approaches at night, boatmen ask for a scoop, and the safe response is to knock out its bottom before handing it over.
Fieldwork collection Funayūrei account from Chiba, record 1230149 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A Chiba example useful for comparing the scoop motif across coastal traditions.
Fieldwork collection Funayūrei account from Kōchi, record 2260176 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A regional example in which an ordinary ladle allows the boat to be filled with seawater.
Fieldwork collection Funayūrei account from Fukuoka, record C4020007-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A Fukuoka example showing regional variation in maritime ghost encounters.
Database Ikai no mori, no. 32: Kuchisake-onna (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-10-19 A rumour that arose in the late 1970s and spread nationwide in many variants.
Fieldwork collection Inugami / Ingame account, record 1340068 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 A collected account of the possessing-spirit belief. Recorded forms differ widely; do not treat any one shape as the documented body.
Fieldwork collection Comparable inugami records, similarity search 2360878 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Comparative set showing dog, mouse, snake and formless descriptions side by side.
Fieldwork collection Records of inugami-suji households and marriage exclusion, similarity search 1070009 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Documents that whole households could be labelled and excluded from marriage. Present as recorded social discrimination against living people, never as a claim about any real family.
Database Ippon-datara and Obamine no ippon-ashi entries (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-19 Single footprints in snow, and the Inozasa-ō variants.
Fieldwork collection Funayūrei, Umi-bōzu, Iso-onna, Gotō (1932) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 Human above the chest, trailing away like a ghost below, and attacking boats. A different creature under the same name.
Fieldwork collection Iso-onna, Mizuho, Nagasaki, from Tabi to Densetsu (1929) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 A wrestler crossing a pine shore at night meets a black-haired woman seated on a stone. She cries out, he is left rigid, her hair is said to draw his blood, and he dies the following day.
Fieldwork collection Iso-onna and Umihime-sama, Ojika Island (1963) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 Identifies Iso-onna with Umihime-sama and with the drowned. She appears on calm days and asks boatmen to carry souls back to shore.
Database Iso-onna entries by region (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 Nationwide result set for the name.
Fieldwork collection Isonade entry (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 A 1960 record from Kumano, Mie, describing Isonade as a long-tailed shark that strikes with its tail at the shore, and the saying used when someone died by the sea.
Fieldwork collection Ittan-momen record 2180776 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A 1938 record describing a cloth-shaped thing that flutters at night and attacks people.
Fieldwork collection Ittan-momen record C0410990-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 Describes a white bolt-like thing appearing on a night road, dazzling a traveler and attacking.
Fieldwork collection Later Jōren Falls spider-spirit account, record 0030390 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 A related local account in which the spider spirit appears as a beautiful woman and returns a dropped axe.
Fieldwork collection Spider-thread account at Jōren Falls, record 1230229 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 Describes a spider winding thread around a young man's foot and a mulberry stump being pulled into the waterfall.
Fieldwork collection Jorōgumo as the master of Jōren Falls, record C0222091-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 A Shizuoka prefectural account connecting the waterfall's spider master with a farmer and a mulberry stump.
Fieldwork collection Kamaitachi account, record 1490023 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 Includes wound descriptions such as sickle-shaped cuts with little bleeding.
Fieldwork collection Kamaitachi account from Chichibu, Saitama, record 1240021 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A regional account with its own explanation of the cutting encounter.
Fieldwork collection Kamaitachi account from Miyagi, record C0411095-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A regional account differing from the Nagano record.
Fieldwork collection Kamaitachi account from Nagano (1955), record 0160017 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 The 1955 Nagano record used as the main source; a weasel-like being too fast to be seen that cuts shins, often as a person falls.
Fieldwork collection Kamaitachi account from Niigata, record C1510068-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 A regional account differing from the Nagano record.
Fieldwork collection Kasha, record C4510097-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-10-19 Miyazaki Kenshi (1992). In several places in Miyazaki, a corpse was said to have been taken by a kasha during a funeral.
Fieldwork collection Kappa and kawabiso account from Ishikawa (1982), record 0540002 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Shows that otter names and kappa names overlap in some regions.
Fieldwork collection Kawauso account from Gunma (1956), record 1090009 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 The adopted account from Shōwa Village, Tone District, published in Jōmō Minzoku: a figure ahead on a riverside road beckons, and following it leads into the water.
Museum Kawauso image record (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Catalogue record for a historical depiction of the otter yokai.
Fieldwork collection Kawauso account from Shimane (1959), record 0700093 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 A separate regional record of an otter deceiving people in human form.
Fieldwork collection Kitsune no hi from Toyooka, Hyōgo, record 2260088 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 The adopted 1930 account describes foxfire as blue or red, blurred, and continually moving between the far side of a mountain and somewhere closer.
Fieldwork collection Kodama-nuki account, record C0411007-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-29 Records a rite before cutting a tree more than a hundred years old. The catalogue location and cited publication title do not align neatly, so do not assign the practice to one prefecture without qualification.
Fieldwork collection Konaki-jiji and Gogya-naki, card 2180717 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-25 From Tabi to Densetsu, 1938. Miyoshi district, Tokushima: deep in the mountains, the appearance of an old man and the cry of an infant. The same card reports the identification with Gogya-naki, which is described quite differently.
Fieldwork collection Kuchisake-onna, related records from 0210016 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-10-19 Twenty-one records whose details disagree — a patient escaped from a Sendai hospital, a failed cosmetic operation, a jilted woman's suicide, a knife or a sickle, chasing or not.
Fieldwork collection The wife who eats nothing, record 1231019 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Tabi to Densetsu (1939), Nishiiwai district, Iwate. A mouthless bride has a mouth in her head, turns into an oni, and loses the man in iris and mugwort.
Fieldwork collection The wife who eats nothing, record C1450092-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Kanagawa Kenshi, Minzoku (1977). The bride who eats nothing is a spider.
Fieldwork collection The wife who eats nothing, record 2181901 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Minkan Denshō (1948), Iwafune district, Niigata. A cooper's wife eats a bale of rice through a mouth at the back of her head; she is a snake.
Fieldwork collection Nawamesuji and makura-gaeshi, record 0200247 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Iyo no Minzoku 40 (1985), Tobe, Ehime. A house built on a ridge line called nawame turns its sleepers around; they wake lying the other way.
Fieldwork collection Makura-gaeshi, record 0780003 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Hatano Denpachirō, "Kaii attached to houses", Koshiji 1-3 (1935), Niigata. A sleeper who lay with the alcove at their head wakes with it at their feet; said to happen in particular houses.
Fieldwork collection The pillow-turning room, record 2470140 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Mukashibanashi Densetsu Kenkyū 19 (1998), Hitachiōta, Ibaraki. A main house about three hundred years old; a sleeper laid head-south woke head-north.
Fieldwork collection Mikoshi-nyūdō account from Tōei, Aichi, record 0900011 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A 1932 place-based record useful for showing the tradition's regional spread.
Fieldwork collection Mikoshi-nyūdō account from Nagasaki, record 2180788 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 The adopted 1938 account: bamboo rustles above a night traveler, silence is dangerous, and the traveler must identify Mikoshi-nyūdō aloud.
Museum One-eyed mikoshi image with a portable shrine (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A distinct visual example; do not treat its one eye or shrine as universal Mikoshi-nyūdō features.
Museum Mikoshi figure from Shinpan Yōkai Tobimawari Sugoroku (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 Historical popular-print example showing one visual treatment of a towering mikoshi figure.
Fieldwork collection Mikoshi-nyūdō account from Kaminoyama, Yamagata, record 1140544 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 A regional example in which a related spoken phrase makes the giant shrink and disappear.
Fieldwork collection Nekomata account from Marugame, Kagawa, record 0640390 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 The adopted 1931 account: an old cat becomes a nekomata, its tail divides in two, it dances upright, and a local food-and-red-towel response is recorded.
Fieldwork collection Cat and nekomata account from Shintomi, Miyazaki, record C4510104-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 Regional comparison for beliefs connecting old cats and nekomata.
Fieldwork collection Nobusuma entry from Yanagita Kunio's Yōkai Meii (1938) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 The adopted Tokyo account, published in Minkan Denshō in 1938: something like a flying squirrel or a bat that drifts in and covers a traveler's eyes and mouth.
Museum Nobusuma image record (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Catalogue record for a historical depiction of the gliding creature.
Fieldwork collection Nure-onna and Ushi-oni, from Okada Kenbun, "Iwami Ushi-oni tan" (1933) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 A fisherman on a night road in Iwami, Shimane, is handed an infant by a wet-haired woman; when he throws the bundle down and runs, an Ushi-oni pursues him. He reaches a farmhouse and survives.
Database Nure-onna entries by region (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 Nationwide result set showing how far the name spreads and how little the entries under it have in common.
Museum Nure-onna in Shinpan Yōkai Tobimeguri Sugoroku (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 An illustrated board game showing a Nure-onna with long hair, a long tongue, a serpent's body and human hands among the waves. The archive record gives no date for the sheet.
Fieldwork collection Nurikabe account from Onga District, record 2180774 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A 1938 record of a night-road obstruction removed by sweeping its lower part with a stick.
Fieldwork collection Nurikabe and Nuribō account, record C0410988-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A related Onga account in which action aimed high fails and sweeping low removes the obstruction.
Database Ōkubi (大首), U426_nichibunken_0451_0001_0020 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-10-15 An old woman's face fills the doorway, teeth blackened; Heitarō drives fire tongs into it. From the Inō-ke Yōkai-den scroll.
Fieldwork collection Okuri-inu and o-inu-sama account, record 1310058 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 A regional example connecting the escorting dog to protective wolf veneration.
Fieldwork collection Okuri-inu account from Takayama, Gifu (1936), record 2290005 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 The adopted account, published in Minzokugaku Kenkyū in 1936: a mountain dog escorts a traveler home, leaves after salt and thanks at the doorway, and is feared if the traveler falls on the way.
Fieldwork collection Okuri-inu and okuri-ōkami account, record C0410965-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 Shows that the sending-dog and sending-wolf names cover varied local traditions.
Primary text Raijū entry from Hokusō Sadan (external link) Tachibana Shunki; International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 The adopted account from near Karasuyama in Shimotsuke: mouse-like but larger than a weasel, watching from a mountain hole in summer until its thundercloud arrives to carry it away.
Primary text Raijū entry from Toryūkō Zuihitsu (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-02 A captured raijū at Iwatsuki described as puppy-like, with claws as sharp as a bear's. A different body from the Karasuyama account.
Fieldwork collection Rokurokubi household account from Makino, Shiga, record 2360386 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-25 A local account of a diligent daughter-in-law who was said to be a rokurokubi.
Museum Rokurokubi image attributed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies; Náprstek Museum collection Accessed: 2026-07-25 Catalogue record describing a long-necked female figure in an Utagawa Kuniyoshi work.
Database Satori (さとり) entries (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-18 Summary, bibliography and regional information for the Hinoemata tale.
Museum Toriyama Sekien's Nekomata image (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-31 Historical two-tailed upright-cat image; not an illustration of the 1931 Kagawa record.
Database Shin (蜃) entry (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-16 Records of the Edo-period essayists arguing over whether shin was a dragon or a clam.
Database Shinban Bakemono-zukushi (しん板化物尽し), U426_nichibunken_0073 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Parent record; the sheet shows forty-eight different monsters.
Fieldwork collection Tengu child-abduction account, record 1080084 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 One collected local account; do not generalize its details nationwide.
Fieldwork collection Mountain voices and unexplained disturbance attributed to tengu, record 2363230 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 Records sounds and a disturbance whose expected traces were absent the next morning.
Fieldwork collection Umi-bōzu account from Suō-Ōshima, record 1230086 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 A separate regional account involving a single-eyed man attempting to board a boat.
Fieldwork collection Umi-bōzu and the akatori in Tsushima, record 2390020 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 A Tsushima account involving a water-removal tool; keep distinct from the calm-sea Awa-Tosa sighting.
Historical text Giant Umi-bōzu sighting between Awa and Tosa, record 3360009 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 Describes an enormous Buddha-like form crossing ahead of a boat in clear, windless conditions and gradually disappearing.
Museum Historical image catalogued as Umi-bōzu (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 Catalogue record illustrating one historical visual treatment of Umi-bōzu.
Fieldwork collection Yamabiko (山彦) entries (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-17 Includes Katsurai Kazuo's record from Kusuyama in Hashikami, Hata district, Kōchi, published in Tabi to Densetsu in 1942: a terrible voice heard suddenly in the deep mountains, by day or by night.
Fieldwork collection Advice for a Yamauba encounter in Kagawa, record 0470087 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 A regional account advising a person to act as though nothing unusual was seen.
Fieldwork collection Yamauba helping with household work in Kōchi, record 1480100 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 A 1975 regional account showing a helpful mountain-woman tradition.
Fieldwork collection Mochi offered to Yamauba in Kyoto, record 0700257 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 A 1982 regional account involving mochi sent down a mountain stream.
Fieldwork collection Yamauba lending household dishes in Miyazaki, record C4510115-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 A regional account in which Yamauba lends dishes but does not show her face.
Fieldwork collection Yamauba seeking a source of fire in Tokushima, record 0730051 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 A 1962 regional account in which a Yamauba comes to a village for fire.
Fieldwork collection Yamauba and the ashinaka from Tsuruoka, Yamagata, record 1231301 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-30 The adopted 1943 account: a man takes a newly woven object from the hills, and a woman's voice comes to his back door demanding the return of her ashinaka.
Database Database of Folklore and Yokai Phenomena (怪異・妖怪伝承データベース) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-23 Use individual records; do not generalize one local account nationwide.
Database Yōkai Emaki (妖怪絵巻), U426_nichibunken_0154 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Parent record; a scroll of animal and utensil monsters parading.
Database Database of Yokai Images (怪異・妖怪画像データベース) (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-08-03 Image database used to compare how a motif was depicted across artists and periods.
Fieldwork collection Snow-woman account involving footprints, record 0700375 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 Useful counterexample to the modern assumption that yuki-onna never leaves tracks.
Fieldwork collection Yuki-onna account from Miyagi, record C0411196-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 Describes a pale, slender, white-clad woman in a blizzard and a warning not to call out.
Fieldwork collection Harmless snow-woman account from Nagano, record 1232102 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 A regional example in which the snow-associated female spirit causes no harm.
Fieldwork collection Yuki-onna account from Niigata, record 1231385 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-24 Describes a pale woman in a single white garment who vanishes.
Fieldwork collection Zashiki-warashi account, record 1370017 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 One collected account; do not generalize its details nationwide.
Fieldwork collection Zashiki-warashi account, record 1461362 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 One collected account; sex, age, appearance and names vary across records.
Fieldwork collection Zashiki-warashi account, record 2180290 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-07-28 One collected account; do not generalize its details nationwide.
Fieldwork collection Zashiki-warashi, record C0411051-000 (external link) International Research Center for Japanese Studies Accessed: 2026-09-25 Miyagi Kenshi, Minzoku 3 (1956). Sleeping in a zashiki-warashi's room can mean having one's pillow turned or being pressed down, but the spirit does no harm.
Reliable secondary The home of the talked-about yokai Sunekosuri (external link) Okayama Prefecture Tourism Federation Accessed: 2026-08-24 Satō Seimei's record, the Iryōdō area of Ibara, and the difference between the old dog-shaped figure and the modern cat-like one.
Reliable secondary Samebito no ongaeshi (鮫人の恩返し), Seta (external link) Otsu City Accessed: 2026-08-12 Municipal account of the same story tied to its actual geography, naming Totaro, the Long Bridge of Seta, and the dragon king.
Academic paper Transformation of the Oni: From the Frightening and Diabolical to the Cute and Sexy (external link) Noriko T. Reider; Asian Folklore Studies 62 (2003) Accessed: 2026-10-19 Quotes the Wamyō Ruijushō (c. 930s) defining oni as a hidden spirit of the dead that does not wish to appear.
Museum Printed sheet, one-legged raijū (tentative title) (external link) National Museum of Japanese History Accessed: 2026-08-02 An Edo-period image showing yet another raijū form, with a single leg.
Museum Nishiki-e: Minamoto no Yorimitsu's mansion and the earth spider (external link) National Museum of Japanese History Accessed: 2026-08-21 Later imagery of the sickbed, the spider disguised as a monk, and the cords of silk.
Reliable secondary Satō Seimei, Genkō Zenkoku Yōkai Jiten (現行全国妖怪辞典), 1935 (external link) Printed edition Accessed: 2026-08-24 The Oda district, Okayama entry for Sunekosuri, in about one sentence: dog shaped, on rainy nights, brushing between a traveller's legs as it passes.
Library Satō Seimei special site (external link) Satoshō Town Library Accessed: 2026-08-24 Records Satō Seimei as the person who first introduced Sunekosuri nationally.
Museum Sawaki Sūshi, Hyakkai Zukan (百怪図巻), 1737 (external link) Fukuoka City Museum Accessed: 2026-08-17 The painted scroll that precedes Sekien and carries the same dog-or-monkey yamabiko figure, showing the image was a lineage rather than one artist's invention. Consulted as the held scroll; no stable public URL recorded.
Academic book Suzuka no Monogatari: kenkyū to chūshaku (external link) Andō Hideyuki; Seibundō Accessed: 2026-10-15 Publisher's page for a study of the Muromachi tale, its manuscript lines, and the Ōtake episode.
Museum Hakutaku no zu (白澤之図) (external link) Shurijo Castle Digital Museum Accessed: 2026-08-03 A Ryukyuan version of the image, showing that the iconography travelled and changed outside the Japanese mainland.
Library Hyakki shūi digitized copy (external link) Smithsonian Libraries Accessed: 2026-09-25 First volume of the digitized three-volume set of Sekien's 1781 Konjaku Hyakki Shūi.
Library Hyakki tsurezurebukuro digitized copy, volume 2 (external link) Smithsonian Libraries Accessed: 2026-09-25 Digitized middle volume of Sekien's 1784 book of utensil yokai.
Library Hyakki tsurezurebukuro digitized copy, volume 3 (external link) Smithsonian Libraries Accessed: 2026-10-09 Digitized last volume of Sekien's 1784 book of utensil yokai.
Library Konjaku zoku hyakki digitized copy (external link) Smithsonian Libraries Accessed: 2026-07-29 Digitized copy of the picture book containing the Wanyūdō print.
Museum The Tale of Shuten Dōji, F1998.26.2 (external link) Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art Accessed: 2026-10-15 Handscroll of 1700 by Kano Shōun, calligraphy by Nakayama Atsuchika: Raikō's band disguised as monks, the wine potion, the sleeping giant.
Museum Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (external link) Tokyo Museum Collection Accessed: 2026-07-30 Museum record identifying Toriyama Sekien and dating the work to 1781.
Museum Toriyama Sekien, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (今昔画図続百鬼), 1779 (external link) Tokyo Museum Collection Accessed: 2026-08-13 The 1779 sequel to Sekien's illustrated demon catalogue, containing both Kawa-akago and Suiko.
Reliable secondary Ippon-datara or Hitotsu-datara, Totsukawa Furusato Archive Takaragura no. 161 (external link) Totsukawa Village Accessed: 2026-08-19 Local material from Kamikitayama and Obamine, including the twentieth day of the twelfth month as a day to stay off the mountain.
Reliable secondary Autumn festival of Uwatsuhiko Shrine (external link) Uwajima City, Ehime Accessed: 2026-08-03 Describes the Ushi-oni festival float that clears the way ahead of a shrine procession, first attested in 1784. A separate tradition from Sekien's shoreline creature.
Museum Happyaku Bikuni exhibitions (external link) Wakasa History Museum, Fukui Prefecture Accessed: 2026-08-15 Museum holding the Happyaku Bikuni images and material tying the legend of the woman who ate ningyo flesh and stopped ageing to Obama in Wakasa.
Museum Toriyama Sekien's Mokumokuren (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-07-30 Public image reference for Sekien's composition; use the primary text for the caption.
Museum Kodama by Toriyama Sekien (external link) Wikimedia Commons Accessed: 2026-07-29 Historical image from Gazu Hyakki Yagyō; do not treat it as a universal documented body.
Primary text Ushi-oni, from Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) (external link) Toriyama Sekien; Wikimedia Commons scan Accessed: 2026-08-03 Sekien's print of a horned head on a squat clawed body among shoreline rocks. It carries no caption beyond the name, so it records no attack, victim, weakness or location.
Primary text Wanyūdō, from Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779) (external link) Toriyama Sekien; Wikimedia Commons scan Accessed: 2026-07-29 Sekien's print and caption; the caption names no location, warns that seeing the wheel costs the soul, and records the Shōbo-Village paper sign.
Reliable secondary Yanagita Kunio, Yama no Jinsei (山の人生), 1926 (external link) Printed edition Accessed: 2026-08-19 Reports the single enormous footprints in snow that Minakata Kumagusu described from Kumano, while declining to conclude a one-legged creature from footprints alone. Consulted in a printed edition; no stable public URL recorded.
Reliable secondary Yanagita Kunio, Yōkai Meii (妖怪名彙) (external link) Printed edition Accessed: 2026-08-24 Gives the same creature for Bitchū Oda: dog shaped, on rainy nights, brushing between the legs of people on the road.
Reliable secondary Boroboroton: caption and plate notes (external link) Yōkaidō (Sekien Hyakusekinyū) Accessed: 2026-10-09 Transcribes and annotates the caption from Fuke Zen and komusō through the boroboro of the craftsmen's poetry contest to the worn futon, and the period spelling 暮露暮露 for boroboro.
Reliable secondary Koto-furunushi: caption and plate notes (external link) Yōkaidō (Sekien Hyakusekinyū) Accessed: 2026-10-09 Transcribes and annotates the caption on Yatsuhashi Kengyō and the old Tsukushi-goto, and describes the plate's plectrum horns, string hair, missing bridges, and torn score. Notes that the caption can be read as siding with either the old or the new style.
Reliable secondary Kyōrinrin: caption and plate notes (external link) Yōkaidō (Sekien Hyakusekinyū) Accessed: 2026-10-09 Transcribes and annotates the caption on scriptures discarded by Shubin, and the Taiheiki account of the rain contest with Kūkai and the curse that returned to its sender.
Reliable secondary Seto-taishō: caption and plate notes (external link) Yōkaidō (Sekien Hyakusekinyū) Accessed: 2026-10-09 Identifies the vessels in the plate and unpacks the caption's puns on Cao Cao, Karatsu ware, Guan Yu's title, and Shu brocade.
Academic paper Yokai and Comparative Cultural Studies — Focusing on Rokurokubi (妖怪と比較文化研究――轆轤首を中心に) (external link) Yokoyama Yasuko; ICU Comparative Culture 36 (2004) Accessed: 2026-07-25 Distinguishes the flying-head and long-necked forms and traces the visual transition from flying head to cord-neck to long neck.

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