irebokuro

Tsukumogami (付喪神, “artifact spirit”) are a type of Japanese spirit. According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become a Tsukumogami. Tsukumogami are considered spirits and supernatural beings, as opposed to enchanted items.

Tsukumogami vary radically in appearance, depending on the type of item they originated from as well as the condition that item was in. Some, originating from paper lanterns or broken sandals, can have tears which become eyes and sharp teeth, thus giving a horrifying visage. Others, such as worn prayer beads or teacups, may merely manifest faces and appendages, giving a warm and friendly appearance.

Though by and large Tsukumogami are harmless and at most tend to play occasional pranks on unsuspecting victims, they do however have the capacity for anger and will band together to take revenge on those who are wasteful or throw them away thoughtlessly. To prevent this, to this day some jinja ceremonies, such as the Hari Kuyō, are performed to console broken and unusable items.

It is said that modern items cannot become Tsukumogami; the reason for this is that tsukumogami are said to be repelled by electricity. Additionally, few modern items are used for the 100-year-span that it takes for an artifact to gain a soul.

Common Tsukumogami:

• Abumi-guchi: stirrup
• Bakezōri: straw sandals
• Boroboro-ton: comforter
• Chōchinobake: lanterns
• Furu-utsubo: archer’s quiver
• Ichiren-bozu: prayer-beads
• Ittan-momen: roll of cotton
• Jotai: cloth draped from folding screens
• Kameosa: sake jars
• Kasa-obake: umbrellas
• Kosode-no-te: kimono robes
• Kyōrinrin: scrolls and papers
• Morinji-no-okama: tea kettles
• Shirōneri: mosquito netting or dust cloths
• Ungaikyo: mirrors
• Yamaoroshi: grater or porcupine
• Zorigami: clocks

Read more here

A female apparition sometimes encountered on snowy nights, usually described as having white hair or skin, being cold to the touch, or otherwise being similar to the frigid winter landscape. 

A early description of the snow woman is found in the Sōgi Shokoku Monogatari (宗祇諸国物語, c. 1690). The author describes an experience in which he caught sight of a strange woman on the edge of a bamboo grove, about twenty years of age, wearing a white unlined kimono and with skin so pale as to be transparent, and a full jō (~10 ft/3.3m) in height. 

Although she is often thought to come out during snowstorms or during a full moon, in some regions the snow woman is said to make her appearance on a fixed date. In Iwate Prefecture’s Tōno area she appears on koshōgatsu(January 15th), and in Aomori Prefecture’s Nishitsugaru District she shows up on New Year’s Day and leaves on the first day of February. 

The most popularly-known story of yuki-onna is the Lafcadio Hearn tale of the same name. In his folkltale anthology Kwaidan, he writes from memory a story told him by his Japanese wife. In the story, two woodcutters are traveling in the snow, when they take refuge in a ferryman’s hut. While they are sleeping, a beautiful woman dressed all in white enters, and blows upon the older man while he is sleeping. Seeing this, the younger woodcutter prepares for death, only to find that she will spare him because of his good looks. But she warns him to never tell anyone of this encounter. A long time after, the young woodcutter meets a beautiful young woman whom he eventually marries. They have many children together, and one night while it is snowing he relates the tale of the yuki-onna he met that day in the ferryman’s hut. Hearing this, his wife leaves in anger, declaring that she was the very woman who spared his life. She leaves, letting him know that the only reason she is again sparing his life is for the sake of their children. She departs, turning into snow, and is never seen again.

Another written tale of a yuki-onna finds an old man ready to go to sleep one winter’s evening in 1833. A knocking sound is heard at his door, but he ignores it. A voice outside pleads to let it in, but still the man denies entry. He has no food or bedding, he says, but his guest desires only shelter. Still the man will not open the door. As he turned to go to bed, he discovered a beautiful young woman in his house, who is not wearing any geta. The young woman tells him that she has been gliding aroung in the snow, searching for the village where she had been married while she was alive. She is seeking this village, for she wishes to haunt her husband for leaving her father’s after she had died. In the middle of the night, she leaves, and the next morning, curious about her story, the old man goes to the village and meets the husband of the young woman. Her ghost, the husband tells the young man, has been visiting him in his sleep, and he has finally decided to return to his father-in-law, to help him in his old age. This story was written by Richard Gordon Smith, in the book Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan.

The ghost story of Okiku, an unfortunate servant maid, is one of the best known and was transformed into a Kabuki play and numerous novels.

Bancho Sarayashiki

In the kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki, Okiku is a maid at the mansion of the Japanese samurai Tessan Aoyama. The samurai wants to seduce the cute girl but she rejects his advances. Aoyama uses a trick. He hides one of ten valuable Dutch plates and threatens Okiku to make public that she had stolen the plate unless she agrees to become his mistress. In her desperation Okiku throws herself into the well and drowns.

Okiku’s ghost comes out every night, counting from one to nine and then breaks out into a terrible howling and sobbing. Finally Aoyama goes insane by the daily apparitions at night.

Different Versions of the Ghost Story of Okiku

There are different versions of the ghost story of Okiku. What they all have in common is the description of her ghost coming out of the well and counting from one to nine and then breaking out into a heart-rendering sobbing.

In another version, Okiku really breaks a plate and is killed by her master and her corpse is thrown into the well.

In yet another version, it is the wife of Aoyama, who breaks the plate. To hide her guilt, she throws the broken plate into the well and accuses Okiku of having it stolen. In this version she is also killed by her master for punishment and thrown into the well.

There is also an alternate version for the end of the story. To stop the nightly sobbing, a friend of the family of Aoyama is hired. He is hiding at the well during the night and after Okiku had counted from one to nine, he is stepping forward shouting loudly “ten”. From then on the ghost of Okiku was never seen again.

The Himeji Castle Version

One of the tourist attractions on Himeji Castle is Okiku’s well (I visited Himeji castle while I spent time in Japan, I had no idea this was here until just now, I really wish I knew this early, although the trip was not planned, I was sent there by a friend while she was at work, I must say out of all the castles I visited in Japan, this was by far the best, not that I am saying there aren’t better, just the best I visited, I would recommend it highly, it is almost untouched unlike Osaka castle, which I wouldn’t bother if I were you, it has been restored, looks ridiculous with marble flooring and an elevator up the centre of it) . In the Himeji version, Okiku was a servant of Aoyama, a retainer who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted.

When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. So he accused her of having stolen one of ten valuable dishes. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.

Okiku’s well on Himeji Castle is in competition with another location of the well, the garden of the Canadian embassy in Tokyo - established on land bought from the Aoyama family. Looks like there are at least as many locations of the well of the poor girl as there are different versions of her story.

All the variations of the ghost story of Okiku have an extremely wrongful and cruel treatment of a poor girl of the lower classes in common. But different from the ghost story of Yotsuya, revenge towards the tormenter is not the big Leitmotiv (apart from one variation of the story).