Chōchin'obake

File:Tbs Chochinobake.png

Chōchin'obake

Template:Nihongo3 or is a Japanese of (a type of lantern), "[the] lantern-spook () ... a stock character in the pantheon of ghouls and earned mention in the definitive demonology of 1784". They can also be called simply , , , and .

They appear in the , , and card games like starting from the Edo period to the early 20th century (and still in use today), as well as in Meiji and Taishō toys, children's books, and haunted house attractions.

Description

File:Shunkosai Hokuei Obake.jpg

from the One Hundred Ghost Stories by Katsushika Hokusai

An old would split upwards and downwards, and the part that got split would become a mouth and stick out a long tongue, and the is commonly considered not to have one eye in its upper half, but two. Sometimes, the would also grow a face, hands, a torso, and wings.

In pictures from the Edo period, both bucket-shaped and cylindrical were depicted. In the by Sekien Toriyama, a lantern-shaped under the name of Template:Ill was depicted.

They are also known from such as Katsushika Hokusai's from the One Hundred Ghost Stories, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's from the Edo period and beyond. These were inspired by the , the (1825), in which the spirit of Oiwa, who was killed by Kamiya Iemon, was performed displaying itself from a (which was called ), and as well as another performance in which a had a human face, the Template:Nihongo3 (in 1825, at the among other places), so these were called .

Among that depict many of tools, there is the Template:Ill, but there have been no found in older works before the Edo Period. Examples of works after the Edo Period include the Template:Nihongo3 by .

File:Obake Karuta 1-08.jpg

Obake Karuta

The in particular was created from a lantern composed of "bamboo and paper or silk". They are portrayed with "one eye, and a long tongue protruding from an open mouth".

Oral legends

Although they are famous , it is said that there are almost no legends in any area that are about this, so in -related literature they are classified as " that exist only in pictures". It is also commonly believed that they were created as a story for entertaining children. The comic artist Mizuki Shigeru published a story about how a would surprise people and suck out their souls, but it did not cite any primary sources.

Also, considered to be in the legends are often described as atmospheric ghost lights like rather than as the tool itself.

In an old story from the Yamagata Prefecture, at a shrine with an aged , a would appear and frighten humans. The would no longer appear after the was put away.

See also

• Template:Ill - possibly a type of chōchin'obake
• Karakasa
• Obake
• Tsukumogami
• Yōkai

Further reading

• "Bakechochin." The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. Harper Element. (2006)
• Bush, Lawrence. Asian horror encyclopedia: Asian horror culture in literature, manga and folklore. Writers Club Press. (2001)
• Kenkyūsho, Nihon Shakai Shisō. Japan interpreter: Volumes 8-9. (Tokyo, Japan), Nihon Shakai Shisō Kenkyūsho, Tokyo. (1974)
• Murakami, Kenji (ed.). Yōkai Jiten (妖怪事典). Mainichi Shimbun (2000).
• The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. Harper Element. (2006)
• Screech, Timon. The lens within the heart: the Western scientific gaze and popular imagery in later Edo Japan. University of Hawaii Press (2002)