When night falls and the lights go out, be sure to stay inside, lock your doors, and close your windows — it’s time for the hyakki to come out and play.
Since Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) all manner of demons, spirits, ghosts, imps, and goblins have featured in the hyakki yagyou (百鬼夜行), the “night parade of one hundred demons” that winds through cities and villages causing chaos and mischief. Any person unlucky enough to catch a glimpse of this ghastly sight meets a quick death. Or they simply…disappear.
Today, yokai are a deep part of Japanese pop culture. From the hit game and anime Yokai Watch (妖怪ウォッチ) to fanart of Pokemon stylized as demonic paraders [1], to Pokemon themselves, Japanese art is rife with yokai and references to the hyakki yagyou.
The Hyakki: Parading into the Japanese Art World
The hyakki yagyou paraded into the Japanese art scene around the Heian period in the form of the picture scroll, called emaki (絵巻). Some of the demons and spirits changed depending on the artist. However, the common format was a large number of various yokai and demons frolicking from one end of the scroll to the other.
Some emaki depict a glowing reddish sphere. Two interpretations offer an explanation for the presence of this red sphere of light. Experts believe this red sphere of light either symbolizes the rising sun or the result of a Buddhist chant meant to dispel the parade.
During the Edo period, the hyakki yagyou found a new home in an oral storytelling game known as hyaku monogatari (百物語). People gathered at night, lit one hundred candles, and took turns telling ghost stories. After finishing a story, they extinguished one candle. As the evening progressed, they extinguished more candles. As a result, the overall mood grew gloomy and fearful.
This game was immensely popular, so much so that it led to a shift in the art scene towards depicting the various yokai born from these stories in ukiyo-e art. As new yokai ran amok through the people’s imaginations, artists began adding them to their versions of the hyakki yagyou, sometimes with startling effect.
Notable Night Paraders
Despite the literal meaning of hyakki as “one hundred demons,” there really aren’t exactly one hundred demons in the parade. The Japanese use “hyaku” to denote any large number, so the total number of facetious demons involved could range into the hundreds. While hyakki translates as “one hundred demons” the parade isn’t just demons. Ghosts (幽霊; yurei), monsters or goblins (化け物; bakemono), and possessed objects (付喪神; tsukumogami) also appear.
Scholar and artist Toriyama Sekien (鳥山石燕) took it upon himself to catalog all the yokai and oni in the hyakki yagyou, publishing the Gazu Hyakki Yagyou (画図百鬼夜行) in 1776. Its simple woodblock prints made mass production possible, and the book’s immense popularity prompted Toriyama to publish three more yokai encyclopedias. Here’s a list of some of the more notable yokai that appear in the hyakki yagyou.
Nurarihyon (滑瓢)
Nurarihyon is a very powerful yokai. Storytellers often depict him as one of the main leaders of the nightly parade. He has mostly humanoid features save for his head, which is large and shaped like a gourd, thus his name “slippery gourd.” He has a taste for the finer things in life, often frequenting luxurious places and eating expensive food. Yokai or human servants carry him around on a palanquin, and other yokai treat Nurarihyon with the utmost respect. His genial appearance hides a great power.
Nozuchi (野槌)
You could almost consider the Nurarihyon a human. However, you can’t say the same for a nozuchi. Akin to giant hairy caterpillars, nozuchi have a giant mouth and a carnivorous appetite. They don’t have a rep for attacking humans. However, if a human gets too close to one of their tree nests, they have no qualms biting or killing that person. One bite from a nozuchi leads to a painful, feverish death. History also portrays nozuchi as one of the leaders of the hyakki yagyou.
Otoroshi (おとろし)
If the name of this yokai sounds familiar to you, you’re not imagining things. Otoroshi comes from the Japanese word osoroshi (恐ろしい), which means “scary” or “frightening.” The beast has an unruly mane of hair over its entire body, jutting tusks and claws, and a hunching figure. It’s not a yokai you want to encounter in the wild!
Otoroshi tends to hang out by shrines and temples, usually lurking on top of gates and entrances. Rather than haunting these holy places, Otoroshi acts as a kind of guardian, waylaying any wicked humans and promptly eating them. Otoroshi is also a leader of the hyakki yagyou.
Tsukumogami (付喪神)
Tsukumogami make up an interesting subset of yokai. They came into prominence during the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and have been the subject of many debates regarding origin and terminology. When a man-made object reaches one hundred years of age, it evolves into a spirit or kami, essentially gaining a consciousness of sorts. Anything could become a tsukumogami, from farming tools and musical instruments to umbrellas and lanterns. Depending on the object a kami inhabits, tsukumogami either appear grotesque or humorous.
Kappa (河童)
Kappa have persisted in art and myth for centuries, and for good reason. These scaly humanoid creatures call rivers and ponds all over Japan their home and are powerful swimmers, capable of overpowering a human male despite their short stature. They have a mix of amphibian features, notably a shell and a turtle’s sharp beak. If worshiped properly, kappa will help irrigate fields and control floods. However, if they catch a human swimming alone, they show no mercy. Kappa also have a penchant for loudly farting in public, thanks to having not one but three anuses.
Nekomata (猫又)
Given the mysterious and elusive nature of the cat, it’s no wonder that some of the more popular yokai appear as cats. The nekomata looks harmless at first glance, until you notice it has not one but two tails. When an ordinary cat, usually a very large and powerful one, reaches a certain age, it transforms into a yokai. It marks this evolution with a split tail.
Nekomata have fierce tempers and have no qualms messing around with humans. Nekomata are able to raise the dead and use their dark magic to control people to do their bidding. They can also summon huge fireballs capable of destroying homes and villages. Nekomata also mimic human behaviors, like walking upright and wearing clothes, even going so far as to adopt a human guise to infiltrate the human world.
Artists Riding the Yokai Wave
The hyakki yagyou and its evolution into the hyaku monogatari game was a treasure trove of inspiration for artists in Japan. While many, like Toriyama Sekien, isolated the yokai and gave them individual attention, some artists used the hyakki yagyou motif as a metaphor to explore other themes.
Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833 – 1904)
Utagawa Yoshiiku was the student of renowned ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi. While he never gained the notoriety of his master, Yoshiiku made an indelible mark in the hyakki yagyou world. It served as a springboard for him to critique or comment on current political or social events happening in the non-supernatural world.
Utagawa created a scroll Kokkei Wanisshi-ki (滑稽倭日史記), or “Comical Record of Japanese History” as a response to Japan’s victory against China in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Political overtones added an absurd touch to these fantastical images, as Utagawa didn’t bother to hide his patriotism. He portrayed oni wearing Chinese attire and tsukumogami as weapons of war.
Mizuki Shigeru (1922 — 2015)
We can’t talk about the hyakki yagyou and yokai in the modern art world without discussing Mizuki Sigeru (水木しげる). Dubbed the ‘yokai professor’ [5], Shigeru grew up listening to yokai stories during a time when folklore was being effectively wiped out by modernity and warped for propaganda purposes. With a resolute determination, Mizuki sought to bring back yokai into the popular consciousness as they were centuries ago. He overcame the loss of his dominant left hand to war and retrained himself to draw using his right hand. He cared deeply for his work and how others treated it. As a result, the public bestowed him with great respect and admiration.
His manga Gegege no Kitaro was a game-changer in Japanese pop culture. Now people all over wanted to read and talk about yokai, not shun them like the government wanted them to. Mizuki eventually began adding short biographies on the yokai featured in Gegege no Kitaro, which were later compiled into an encyclopedia that became just as popular. His impact on how yokai were perceived and treated in art and literature was so great, even the yokai he created are considered authentic folklore.
The Western Take on Yokai
The West tends to categorize Japan’s yokai as “demons,” a classification which has rather negative connotations in most Western religious and horror contexts. Your typical American might associate the word “demon” with evil, possession, sin, exorcism, The Exorcist, or the TV show Supernatural. However, most yokai have found fitting homes in the world of Western comics.
The supernatural comic Wayward [2] is all about yokai, featuring angry kappa and the malicious Nurarihyon as the main villain. The popular comic Monstress [3] (and my personal favorite) features nekomata, kitsune, and other creatures based on yokai. These depictions manage to capture yokai as they are perceived in Japan.
Though yokai are often shown as individuals in art, it’s the hyakki yagyou that we have to thank for setting off the yokai craze. From picture scrolls to television and digital art, yokai continue to parade through the real world, inviting curiosity and inspiration. Just make sure you never come across the hyakki yagyou in person. You never know when they’ll parade through your neighborhood next.
Related Essays
These Five Frightening Japanese Female Ghosts Will Haunt You
Momo: The Horror Hoax Appropriated from Japanese Legend
Sources
[1] ポケモン百五十一鬼夜行絵巻. http://blog.livedoor.jp/agraphlog-asamegraph/temp/pokehyaku.html.
[2] Wayward. https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/wayward-vol-1-string-theory-tp
[3] Monstress. https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/monstress-vol-1-tp
[4] Addiss, Stephen. Japanese Ghosts and Demons: Art of the Supernatural: G. Braziller, 1985.
[5] Grebey, James, and Linda Lombardi. “Shigeru Mizuki, the Legendary Manga Creator and ‘Yokai Professor,’ Finally Gets His Due.” SYFY WIRE, SYFY WIRE, 7 Jan. 2019.
