Tainted List

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Corrupt; Hazardous.

Mimimushi
Gyouchuu, Kitai, Mimimushi耳虫
みみむし

Translation: ear worm
Habitat: the ears and heart

Appearance: Mimimushi is an infectious yōkai with long ears and a spotted, snake-like body. It writhes and slithers back and forth as it migrates between the ears and the heart, causing discomfort in its host.

Interactions: People infected with mimimushi crave cold foods and avoid hot food. Their stomachs appear swollen and bloated. Infections can be treated with remedies made from the herb byakujutsu (Atractylodes japonica) and the mushroom bukuryō (Poria cocos).

Nae

*Drowned Spirit

Naegatsuku
ナエガツク
なえがつく

Translation: possession by a “nae”
Habitat: the sea of Japan off of Fukuoka
Diet: insatiable

Appearance: Naegatsuku is a phenomenon in which a person becomes haunted or possessed by an evil spirit and develops an insatiable hunger. It is a type of gakitsuki (possession by gaki–hungry ghosts from Buddhist cosmology).

Interactions: Naegatsuku happens to people when they see the corpse of a drowned victim. How or why it happens in unknown, but merely witnessing a drowned corpse is enough for this possession to occur.

Origin: Naegatsuku comes from the folklore of Okagaki in Fukuoka Prefecture. The origin of its name is a mystery. Nae may be a local name for a drowned spirit, so it literally means possession by a nae. Based on descriptions of the phenomenon and similarities to other yōkai, a nae sounds very similar to a gaki (preta in Sanskrit). When a person dies with lingering attachment in their heart (such as hunger), their spirit can transform into a hungry ghost called a gaki. Gaki are obsessed with food and driven solely by the desire to eat; yet they are never able to satiate their hunger. Their throats narrow so that they cannot swallow, and whatever food they do eat never satisfies their hunger. Their bellies swell distend from their bodies, their eyes become sunken and their skin becomes thin. Their entire existence is suffering. When gaki possess the living, they impart some of their traits onto their victims–an overwhelming appetite, an inability to swallow food, or physical characteristics such as a distended belly.

Legends: A young man from the village of Hatsu in Okagaki once witnessed the corpse of a person who drowned at sea. He was suddenly so overcome with hunger that he rushed home and in one sitting ate enough rice to feed five people.

Ōzake no mushi
Koseu, Oozakenomushi大酒の虫
おおざけのむし

Translation: heavy drinking worm
Habitat: the abdomen

Appearance: Ōzake no mushi has a bright red body with a number of worm-like appendages branching out. It’s is quite warm, and becomes warmer when its host drinks alcohol. It looks like a lumpy satchel tied up at the top.

Interactions: People infected with ōzake no mushi become heavy drinkers. If the satchel-like “shell” is broken, the ōzake no mushi erupts with what looks like red sand throughout the body. In fact, these are countless other worms which live inside its red body. Even after its host dies, these parasites will live inside of the abdomen.

Rotting Soul


Ringo no kai
林檎の怪
りんごのかい

Translation: apple spirit
Alternate names: ringo no sei
Habitat: gardens with apple trees
Diet: human feces

Appearance: Ringo no kai are the spirits of apple trees which have had fruit sit for too long on the branch without being picked and eaten. They look like humans, although they have a uniquely odd behavior.

Interactions: Ringo no kai appear in the evenings at houses near where they are planted. They ask the residents to feed them poop. If the residents cooperate, the ringo no kai eats it up with gusto, exclaiming over and over how delicious it is. Then, the ringo no kai presents its own stool to the residents of the house and demands that they partake as well.

Origin: Ringo no kai come from the folklore of Akita Prefecture, but similar stories are found in other prefectures with other kinds of fruit. Tantan kororin from neighboring Miyagi Prefecture is another well known scatological fruit yōkai.

Legends: Long ago, near the village of Kakunodate, an elderly man lived all alone. One evening, a strange man came to his house. The visitor asked the elderly man to feed him poop. The man was shocked at such an unusual request, but the stranger repeated the request over and over, even begging to be fed feces. Eventually, the old man relented. He brought his guest plateful of excrement, which was devoured with gusto. The visitor exclaimed over and over again, “How delicious!”

When he was finished eating, the visitor got up as if to leave. But instead, he reached behind his back and excreted a hot, steaming pile of feces into his hands and presented it to the old man. “Here, try this!” he demanded. The old man was at a loss for words, but the stranger kept insisting, until finally the old man sampled the excrement.

It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. The old man screamed with delight as he gobbled down the stranger’s poop.

From them on, night after night, the strange man appeared at the elderly man’s house and they feasted on each other’s dung. But eventually, the old man began to think that, no matter how delicious his guest’s poop was, the situation was incredibly suspicious. So one night as the visitor was leaving, the man grabbed a nearby cleaver and swung it at the stranger. The cleaver carved into his back and he let out a scream. Then he ran out of the house into the night.

When morning came, the old man went outside and followed the stranger’s footprints. The led around his house to the back garden, all the way up to an old apple tree. The tree’s trunk had a hideous gash from the cleaver carved into it. The stranger had been the spirit of the apple tree all along, and the poop that the old man had been feasting upon was the unpicked apples that had begun to rot on its branches.

Sanshi
Sanshi三尸
さんし

Translation: the three corpses; the three spirits
Habitat: inside the human body
Diet: unknown

Appearance: The sanshi are three spiritual worms found inside of humans. Each is about 6 centimeters long. These worms live in their hosts from the moment they are born to the moment they die. They work hard to cause their hosts to do evil things.

Interactions: The names of the sanshi are Jōshi, Chūshi, and Geshi, meaning upper worm, middle worm, and lower worm.

Jōshi lives in your head and looks like a Taoist wise man. He is responsible for making your eyes grow weak, creating wrinkles, and growing white hairs. Chūshi lives in your torso and looks like a wild beast. He is responsible for damaging internal organs, making you overeat and overdrink, and causing bad dreams. Geshi lives in the lower half of your body and looks like a human foot with a cow’s head. He drains the will and shortens the life of his host.

The number 60 is an important number in Chinese astrology, and every sixty days the sanshi leave the body to visit the King of Heaven while their host human sleeps. They report their host’s wicked deeds for the year to king. Depending on this report, the King of Heaven shortens each human’s life span by a certain amount.

To escape the King of Heaven’s sentence, Kōshin practitioners do not sleep every 60th night, so the sanshi are never able to leave the body and give their report. Additionally, spells and charms are chanted to prevent any harm done by the sanshi. The following spell is said to defeat the sanshi’s power:

ホウコウシ、ホウジョウシ　メイコシ　シツニュウヨウメイイチュウ　キョリガシン

Finally, if you find yourself drowsy and unable to stay awake, the following spell must be chanted before falling asleep to prevent harm:

シヤムシハ、イネヤサリネヤ　ワガトコヲ　ネタレゾネヌゾ　ネネドネタレルゾ

Shikome
醜女
しこめ

Translation: ugly woman
Alternate names: yomotsu shikome (“ugly woman from hell”)
Habitat: Yomi (the Shintō underworld)
Diet: omnivorous

Appearance: Shikome is a broad term describing kijo, or female oni, who look like ugly human women. In addition to being ugly, they often have beast-like features such as claws, paws, pointed ears, or patches of furry hair. They usually have long black hair, sagging misshapen breasts, and wide twisted smiles.

Behavior: Shikome spend a lot of effort trying to make themselves beautiful, applying thick white makeup to their faces, blackening their teeth, and wearing multi-layered kimono. Their excessive grooming only accentuates their ugliness, making them a satirical mockery of high fashion.

Interactions: Shikome are attendants of the land of the dead, and are quite dangerous. They are fast, able to leap one thousand ri (approximately four thousand kilometers) in a single bound. They are also ravenous, and can devour food at an incredible speed.

Origin: Shikome appear in a number of yōkai picture scrolls, and have remained a popular staple of yōkai artwork. Early shikome illustrations have served as the basis for a great number of yōkai which satirize unattractive women, such as ao nyōbo, taka onna, and kerakera onna.

Shikome also play a role in Japan’s ancient mythology, where they are known as yomotsu shikome (ugly women of Yomi).

Legends: The widowed god Izanagi grieved for his dead wife Izanami, who had died in childbirth. He journeyed into the underworld to try to bring her back from the dead. Izanagi found her deep in the shadowy land of Yomi. He begged her to return to the surface with him. Izanami sadly explained that she since had already eaten the food of the dead, she could not return. But she would ask if she could at least visit him. She asked Izanagi to wait for her answer, and made him promise not to bring any light into the dark underworld.

Izanagi grew impatient of waiting. Finally, he entered the palace of the dead to look for Izanami. He transformed his comb into a torch so he could see through the dark. When the light fell upon Izanami’s face, he saw that she was horrible to behold. Her flesh was rotting away and she was covered in wriggling maggots. Izanami grew furious at him for breaking his promise. Izanagi was terrified. He fled from the palace. Izanami ordered her servants, the yomotsu shikome, to catch Izanagi.

The shikome were incredibly fast. As they closed in, Izanagi threw his woven headdress to the floor. It transformed into a vine of grapes. The shikome stopped for a moment to devour the grapes, buying Izanagi some time. The demons quickly devoured the grapes, then resumed their chase. Izanagi broke the teeth off of his comb and scattered them. They turned into bamboo shoots. The shikome devoured these too, buying him just a little more time. At last, he was able to escape to the surface. He rolled a large boulder over the entrance to Yomi, trapping the shikome and his furious wife in the underworld forever.

Shirime
Shrime尻目
しりめ

Translation: butt eye
Alternate names: nuppori-bōzu
Habitat: city streets, late at night
Diet: none; it just enjoys scaring people

Appearance: From a distance, shirime appears to be a normal human being. When close enough, however, it becomes apparent that it is a yokai. It has no facial features, but located in its butt hole is a large eye which shines like lightning.

Behavior: Shirime approaches travelers on the road late at night, looking like a man wearing a kimono. Once it has their attention, it asks them if they have a moment to spare. Before they can answer, the shirime drops its kimono to the ground and bends over, spreading its butt cheeks and revealing the giant, shining eye located inside of its butt hole.

Other than its very startling behavior, shirime does not do anything harmful. It appears to thrive solely on the joy of scaring people.

Origin: Although there are very few documented encounters, because of its alternate name (nuppori-bōzu) and its shocking behavior, it is very likely that shirime is a close relative of the noppera-bō, another faceless ghost. In this case, shirime’s true form may simply be a shapeshifted animal playing a practical joke on humans.

Sori no kanmushi
Sorinokanmushiソリの肝虫
そりのかんむし

Translation: back-bending liver bug
Habitat: the liver
Diet: spicy foods

Appearance: The sori no kanmushi is a terrible parasitic bug with wide, bugging out eyes, a blue back, and a white belly. Its hands are like flippers and its tail is brush-like. It likes spicy foods. It lives in the liver, but the symptoms it causes affect the spine.

Interactions: Sori no kanmushi bites the back of its host, causing great pain. Its victim develops a warped or curved spine, a condition which long ago was called sori (thus this creature’s name). Mokkō (Saussurea costus) and byakujutsu (Atractylodes japonica) are effective medicines against this bug.

Taibyō no kesshaku
Taibyounokesshaku, Kakurannomushi, Kishaku大病の血積
たいびょうのけっしゃく

Translation: terrible disease blood shaku (a type of infection)
Alternate names: kesshaku, chishaku
Habitat: the stomach
Diet: blood

Appearance: This yōkai infects hosts after they have suffered from a terrible sickness. It’s body is shaped like a flexible bulb. It has flippers and a broad tail which help it swim about the stomach. Its head it shaped like a hammer, and it uses it to smash through the stomach wall and enter the heart, where it feeds off of its host’s blood.

Interactions: A person infected with a taibyō no kesshaku becomes pale, with thin and emaciated cheeks. The victim’s entire body becomes weak and worn out. This infection can be cured by vomiting up the taibyō no kesshaku and sprinkling it with shukusha (medicine made from black cardamom seed). When a taibyō no kesshaku is smashed, its body rips open and an enormous blood clot is released.

Umakan
Umakan馬癇
うまかん

Translation: horse kan (kind of infection)
Alternate names: shinnoju
Habitat: the heart

Appearance: Umakan is an infectious parasite with the appearance of a splendid, fast horse. Its head, neck, and back are deep red. It’s tail, belly, and legs are white. It acts up in bright sunlight, or the light from a large fire.

Interactions: Umakan victims suffer from a weak heart and fainting spells. Upon waking up, they seem perfectly fine with no other problems. To treat this sickness, the victim must continuously build up strength in their heart. There are a number of effective ways to treat it with acupuncture as well, which are passed down orally from teacher to student.

Yakubyō gami
疫病神
やくびょうがみ

Translation: pestilence spirit
Alternate names: ekibyō gami, yakushin, ekiki, gyōyakujin
Habitat: human-inhabited areas

Appearance: Yakubyō gami are a class of evil spirits which spread infectious diseases and misfortune. They are formless spirits invisible to the human eye. Their true, unseen forms are often depicted in art as a myriad of grotesque monsters resembling oni. On rare occasions when yakubyō gami appear to humans, they often take the form of elderly priests or old hags.

Many kinds of yakubyō gami exist—for example, amazake babā, bake kujira, kaze no kami, keukegen, korōri, momonjii, and yonaki babā, to name a few.

Behavior: Yakubyō gami travel from person to person and place to place, spreading sickness and misfortune wherever they go. They haunt a single person or a household for a short time. Once their victims have been infected, they move on to a new target.

Interactions: People have invented many ways to protect themselves from yakubyō gami. Images of protective spirits—such as amabie, baku, hakutaku, hōnengame, jinja hime, kotobuki, Shōki, and so on—were often hung in houses with the belief that they would ward off yakubyō gami. Buddhist and Shinto talismans—omamori and ofuda—were also used in this way. Holy ropes called shimenawa were strung around trees at the borders of villages to prevent evil spirits from entering.

In eastern Japan, on the eighth night of the second and twelfth months in the old lunisolar calendar, two yōkai—hitotsume kozō and mikari baba—would travel from house to house to record people’s misdeeds. Their report would be given to a yakubyō gami who would then come down to each village and apportion misfortune and sickness based on the report. One-eyed yōkai like hitotsume kozō were said to fear objects with many “eyes”—such as sieves and baskets—and so these were hung outside of homes on these nights to scare them away and prevent them from reporting anything to the yakubyō gami.

People have also tried to discourage appease yakubyō gami by honoring them as gods. Offerings of food were regularly performed by priests and government officials in an effort to prevent epidemics. Many of today’s popular festivals and celebrations have their roots in rituals designed to appease yakubyō gami.

Origin: Yakubyō gami are historically among the most feared yōkai of all. They frequently appeared in folklore and art during the second half of the 19th century when several epidemics struck Japan. However, the belief that sickness and misfortune are caused by invisible spirits has always been a central part of Japanese folklore. Before germ theory revolutionized our understanding of infectious diseases, people had no knowledge of microorganisms that cause disease. The way sickness spread from person to person must have seemed very much like an invisible spirit was traveling from house to house and infecting people.

Legends: In 1820 in Edo, a samurai managed to capture a yakubyō gami as it was trying to enter his house. In exchange for its freedom, the spirit promised to spare everyone in the samurai’s family from sickness and misfortune. It gave him a written contract agreeing to never try to enter the samurai’s house again. Afterwards, the samurai’s story and the entire contents of the contract were circulated widely in the newspapers with the instructions to use it as a talisman. Before long, houses all over Edo each had their own printed copy of the yakubyō gami’s contract.