Aethereal List

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Elements, Elementals, Spirits, and Energy.

Kamigami



Kamigami is the great spirit from which all spirits flow and go, and can be considered the 'Will Of The Spirits.' It is the basis for the Kamigami, themselves, and can cause lower ranking spirits to become 'Kamigami' through a Spirit Quest or Spirit Test.

Water Spout

Ghost Puppy

Ember





Furaribi
Furaribiふらり火
ふらりび

Translation: aimless fire
Alternate names: buraribi, sayuribi
Habitat: riverbanks
Diet: none

Appearance: Furaribi is a small, flying creature wreathed in flames. It appears late at night near riverbanks. It has the body of a bird, and its face is somewhat dog-like. It is a type of hi-no-tama, or fireball yokai. It does very little except for float about aimlessly, which is how it got its name.

Origin: Furaribi are created from the remains of a soul which has not properly passed on to the next life. This is most often due to not receiving proper ceremonial services after dying. In Japan there are a number of important ceremonies performed at fixed intervals which occur for many years after someone’s death — missing even one of these could cause a soul to become lost and be unable to rest. Furaru-bi is one of these lost souls.

Legends: In the late 16th century, Toyama was ruled by a samurai named Sassa Narimasa. Narimasa kept a very beautiful concubine named Sayuri in his household. Sayuri was not well liked by the female servants and other women in Sassa Narimasa’s household. They were jealous of her beauty and of Narimasa’s love for her. One day, these women conspired against Sayuri and started a rumor that she had been unfaithful to Narimasa with one of his own men. Narimasa flew in a fit of jealous rage, murdered Sayuri, then took her body down to the Jinzū river. He hung her corpse from a tree and proceeded to carve it into pieces with his sword. Then he captured Sayuri’s entire extended family — 18 people in all — and executed them in the same manner. Afterwards, their tortured souls aimlessly wandered the riverbanks every night as furaribi.

It is said if you go down to the riverside and call out, “Sayuri, Sayuri!” late at night, the floating, severed head of a woman will appear, pulling and tearing at her hair in a vengeful fury. As for Sassa Narimasa, he was later defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Some have attributed his defeat by Hideyoshi to the vengeful curse of Sayuri’s ghost.



Nojukubi
野宿火
のじゅくび

Translation: wilderness inhabiting fire
Habitat: rural roads, mountain paths, and abandoned campsites

Appearance: Just as a campfire leaves behind embers which smolder and glow long after the fire has died, human activity can leave behind “embers”—lingering traces of energy which remain for some time after an event has taken place. Nojukubi is a mysterious fire which ignites and extinguishes on its own. It appears most often in the spring just after the season of cherry blossom viewing parties, or in the fall after the season of fall foliage viewing parties. It is most commonly found on roadsides or in the mountains, along routes where people go on excursions or hikes. It takes the form of a thin streak of flame which appears out of nowhere.

Behavior: Nojukubi is most commonly found in wilderness areas from which humans have recently left. These bizarre fires flare up suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, and just as quickly extinguish for no reason, even when they appear to be burning strong. They reignite and extinguish themselves over and over.

Nojukubi exhibits a number of strange qualities which distinguish it from ordinary campfires. It appears more frequently just after it stops raining, unhindered by the dampness. It does not give off any heat. It does not consume wood or kindling as it burns, and it does not spread like a normal fire does. Perhaps strangest of all, witnesses of nojukubi report that human voices can be heard having conversations or reciting poetry and songs from within the flames—remnants of the lively activity which took place earlier.

Origin: Nojukubi appears in the Edo Period yokai collection Ehon hyakumonogatari, where it is noted as being a phenomenon separate from kitsunebi or Sōgenbi. Other sources describe it as a type of onibi.



Cinnamonpuff

Formless



*Whiteface is a type of Formless.

Firespine

Dengerio

Black Hood

Possessed Spirit






Oi no bakemono
笈の化け物
おいのばけもの

Translation: backpack monster
Habitat: homes and temples where pilgrims might stay

Appearance: Oi no bakemono are tsukumogami—artifact spirits—which haunt wooden backpacks known as oi. An oi which has been used for a very long time may transform into this bird-like yōkai. They sproud heads with long, black hair, and three-toed avian feet Their carry a broken sword blade in their mouths, resembling a bird’s pointed beak. They can breathe fire.

Origin: Oi are special backpacks which are carried on long journeys by itinerant Buddhist monks, pilgrims, and yamabushi (mountain ascetics who practice Shugendō). They contain Buddhist religious implements, clothing, tableware, and other necessities for their journeys.

Oi no bakemono appears in the book Ehon musha bikō, where one is said to have appeared in the bedroom of Ashikaga Tadayoshi—a general and government administrator during the 14th century. Tadayoshi helped his brother Tadauji to establish the Ashikaga shogunate, which ruled Japan for over 200 years.

Ionhead

Elecricket

Fever

Ring Of Fire

Boobear

Foreshadow

Smog




Enenra

Spoiler:

Hangonkō

Spoiler:

Breeze

Whispering Wind





Ushirogami
Ushirogami後神
うしろがみ

Translation: behind spirit
Habitat: haunts cowardly people
Diet: fear

Appearance: Ushirogami looks like a ghost with long black hair, and a large single eyeball located on the top of its head. It doesn’t have feet, but instead has a long, twisting body which allows it to leap high into the air.

Interactions: An ushirogami’s favorite tactic is to scare people by leaping out and appearing right behind them (thus its name). They like to tug on the hairs on the back of a person’s neck and then vanish just as they turn around to see touched them. Other pranks that ushirogami enjoy include placing their icy cold hands or breathing their hot breath onto the necks of their victims. Ushirogami particularly like going after cowardly young women walking the streets at night. They sneak up behind them and untie their hair, causing it to fall all over the place; or they run their hands through the woman’s hair and mess it around, causing it to become tangled. Sometimes they call up strong gusts of wind to blow umbrellas away.

Origin: Ushirogami is thought to be a kind of okubyōgami—a spirit that causes cowardice, or that specifically targets cowardly people. Its name comes from the words ushiro (behind) and kami (spirit). However, there is a hidden pun in its name: ushirogami also means the hair on the back of your neck, and the phrase ushirogami wo hikikaeru (to have the hairs on the back of your neck pulled) means to do something with painful reluctance. It describes a person who has to do something that they really don’t want to do. As they search for some way out of it, they turn around and look behind them as if the hairs in the back of their head were being metaphorically pulled. The pun is that the ushirogami (spirit) is pulling on your ushirogami (hair), causing you to become cowardly and not want to do something. You turn around to see who pulled your hair, but there is no one back there. Thus the ushirogami can be explained as both an external entity which causes fear, or as the internal personification of your own cowardice or reluctance.


Uwan
うわん

Translation: onomatopoeic; named for the sound it makes
Habitat: empty temples, abandoned houses
Diet: lives off of the fear it causes

Appearance: Another monster about which little is known, the uwan is more often heard than seen. It is named for the distinctive sound it makes, crying out from the darkness: “Uwan!” No written record of its physical appearance exists; the creature was thought to be formless for centuries. It wasn’t until the Edo period when artist Sawaki Sūshi gave the creature its shape that uwan were considered anything more than phantom sounds.

Interactions: Uwan are occasionally encountered outside of old buildings and temples. They assault lone passersby by leaping out of the shadows and shouting “Uwan!” The uwan depends entirely on the surprise attack—any weak-willed victims who faint at the site of the uwan never regain consciousness. The uwan steals their essence and flees into the darkness. However, if a brave individual shouts back “Uwan!” then this yōkai flees and never bothers that person again.

Legends: A famous uwan encounter took place in Akita Prefecture during the Edo period. A young newlywed couple had bought an old mansion and moved in together. On their first night in their new house, they were awoken by a loud voice shouting “UWAN!” The shocked couple searched all over and around the house, but couldn’t find the source of the voice. The shouting continued for some time, erupting sporadically all night, every night. The couple was not able to sleep at all.

Some time later, the couple’s neighbors began to ask why they were always so tired-looking, with blood-shot eyes and disheveled hair. The husband tried to explain about the mysterious voice, but none of his neighbors claimed to have heard the shouting. Of course, nobody in the neighborhood believed the couple. Instead, gossip quickly began to spread that the newlyweds weren’t getting any sleep on account of nocturnal activity of a different kind. Embarrassed, the couple ceased asking about the strange sounds.


Yamabiko
山彦
やまびこ

Translation: echo; written with characters meaning mountain boy
Habitat: forested mountains and valleys, inside camphor tress
Diet: unknown

Appearance: The wilds of Japan are full of strange phenomena, like echoes that bounce back with more delay than they should, or that come back slightly different from the original sound. When the false echo comes from the forest, it is usually attributed to a kodama. When it comes from the mountains, it is due to something called a yamabiko. They are small, appearing like a cross between a dog and a wild monkey.

Yamabiko are known almost exclusively by their voices. They are skilled at mimicking any sound, including natural sounds, human language, and trains and cars. They occasionally unleash terrible and mysterious screams deep in the forests that can carry for long distances.

Behavior: Little is known about these yōkai due to their rarity and elusiveness. They live deep in the mountains and make their homes in camphor trees, in close proximity to (and sharing a common ancestry with) other tree and mountain spirits. For many centuries, their calls were speculated to be a kind of rare bird, or other kinds of yōkai, or even natural phenomena. It wasn’t until the Edo period—when determined yōkai researchers like Sawaki Sūshi and Toriyama Sekien began making illustrated yokai bestiaries—that this creature’s form was decided.

Clay Sprite

(Fire)

Sensitivity

Watursa

Kaos (Cause)



Pure Causality. Flows like water and affects like waves.

Ame




Hikeshi baba

Spoiler:

Kosamebō

Spoiler:

E.Z.A.



Byproduct of Project 402.

Water Jet

Jar Head

Geyser