Tainted List

Noderabou野寺坊
のでらぼう

Translation: wild temple priest
Habitat: abandoned, ruined temples
Diet: sadness

Appearance: Noderabō are forlorn, grotesque ghosts of fallen priests dressed in tattered rags. They appear late at night in abandoned, overgrown, ruined temples, forlornly haunting the temple grounds and occasionally ringing the large temple bells.

Origin: Noderabō were once priests who committed some kind of sin and died in dishonor. Most often they are those who fell to vices forbidden to priests, such as attachment to women or money. No longer welcome in towns and cities, they flee to abandoned temple ruins located out in depressed rural areas and transform into yokai.

Legends: In Saitama there is a place called Nodera. Long ago, a prankster decided to steal the large bronze bell from the town’s temple. However, he was spotted in the act by one of the local townspeople and fled, dropping the bell into a pond, where it got stuck. The pond became known as Kanegaike (“Bell Pond”). Some time later a lazy monk-boy was given a job by the high priest of the temple, but instead of doing what he was bid he spent the day playing with other neighborhood children. When it came time for him to face the high priest, he was so ashamed that he became depressed and threw himself into Kanegaike and drowned. After that, every night the villagers could hear the sound of crying echoing off of the great bronze bell, coming from deep within Kanegaike pond. The monk-boy became known as the ghost of Nodera, or the noderabō.

Aobouzu青坊主
あおぼうず

Translation: blue monk
Habitat: wheat and barley fields, uninhabited homes, lonely roads
Diet: varies from region to region; commonly children

Appearance: Ao bōzu are generally depicted as large, one-eyed, blue-skinned priests with a strong connection to magic. However, local accounts vary greatly in details such as size, number of eyes, and habitat. In Okayama, they are described as two-eyed giants who take up residence in abandoned or uninhabited homes. In other stories, they appear in wheat fields, or on dark, lonely roads.

Interactions: In Shizuoka, ao bōzu are said to appear on spring evenings at sunset in the wheat and barley fields. The transition from night to day is a popular theme in the tradition of in-yō sorcery. Further, the still blue-green leaves of the young barley also have powerful connections to in-yō. Children who go running and playing through the fields in the evening might be snatched up and taken away by an ao bōzu. Thus, good children must go straight home after school and not go tramping through the fields!

In Kagawa, ao bōzu appear late at night to young women and ask them, “Would you like to hang by your neck?” If the woman says no, the ao bōzu disappears without a word. However, if she ignores him or says nothing, he attacks her with lightning speed, knocks her out, and hangs her by the neck.

In Yamaguchi, they are considered minor deities. They appear before humans on the road and challenge them to sumo matches. Because Yamaguchi’s ao bōzu are only as big as children, many a person has foolishly accepted the challenge, only to find himself flung to the ground with god-like strength and potentially lethal speed.

Origin: Very little is known about this yokai. Toriyama Sekien was the first to record the ao bōzu, and his illustration came with not a single word of description other than its name. From its name, we can glean a little bit of information; the word ao means blue or green, and can denote immaturity and inexperience. (Another well-known yokai — ao-nyōbō — uses this color in a similar manner.) As the original illustration was black-and-white, it may even be that this yokai was never intended to be colored blue or green, but rather just as a mockery of what Toriyama Sekien saw as a corrupt and unskilled priesthood. Nonetheless, thanks to its name, it is usually depicted in a sickly shade of ao.

The fact that ao bōzu has only one eye and is revered as a minor god in some places draws a strong parallel with another yokai, the hitotsume-kozō. Because of his similarity, there are theories suggesting a connection to the ancient spirit worship of old Japan. In these shamanistic proto-religions, one-eyed monsters often originated as fallen mountain gods and bringers of evil, sent to do the bidding of larger deities. They could be kept at bay with woven baskets, or other objects with many holes, which the monsters would view as hundreds of eyes and avoid, either out of fear or jealousy.

Because there are so many different accounts, and because there are so many different kinds of nasty priest yokai, it’s impossible to tell which, if any, is the real ao bōzu, and which are variations of other kinds of yokai.

Kurobouzu黒坊主
くろぼうず

Translation: black monk
Habitat: human-inhabited areas
Diet: the breath of sleeping humans

Appearance: A kuro bōzu is a dark, shadowy yokai which looks somewhat like a bald-headed Buddhist monk—however, its exact appearance is vague and difficult to make out. It’s entire body is black, and it wears black robes. Its face has somewhat bestial features. It has a long tongue, and it reeks of rotting fish. Its hands and feet are said to be indiscernible. It can change its height rapidly, becoming a towering monster in an instant. It is extremely fast, and can run as fast as if it were flying.

Interactions: Kuro bōzu haunt areas inhabited by humans. They come out at night, sneaking into houses after everyone is asleep. They creep up to their victims—primarily women—and suck the breath out of their mouths. They also slide their putrid tongues into the mouths, ears, and all over the faces of their victims. Those visited repeatedly by kuro bōzu become very ill.

Origin: Kuro bōzu didn’t appear in folklore until the Meiji period, so they are relatively new by yōkai standards. Because of the wide variations in reports, it is hard to come up with a clear picture of this yokai’s identity. Some experts believe they are a kind of nopperabō, due to their vague and indiscernible features. Some compare them to yamachichi, who also sneak into houses to steal the breath of sleeping humans. Its size-changing abilities and monk-like appearance suggest that it may be a variety of taka nyūdō. Still others say that it is one of the forms taken by magical kawauso.

Legends: The most well known kuro bōzu report comes from the early Meiji period, from a newspaper article in the Hōchi Shinbun. The encounter took place at a certain carpenter’s house in Kanda, Tokyo. At midnight, a black, shadowy figure shaped like a monk suddenly appeared in the house. The creature entered the bedroom where husband and wife were sleeping. It climbed over the carpenter’s sleeping wife and stuck its tongue in her ears and mouth. Then it licked her all over. The creature smelled like foul garbage. The smell was so noxious that the family became ill.

Again and again for several nights, the kuro bōzu returned to assault the carpenter’s wife. Finally, she could not put up with it anymore. She left her husband and went to stay with some relatives. According to the carpenter, after his wife left, the black monk stopped coming.