Kasa-obake

Umbrellas are easily forgotten items. They are often left behind under bus seats, in empty shops and train stations, in the middle of wet streets. After faithfully serving their masters for years, they experience resentment for being abandoned in such lonely places.

Kasa-obake is an example of a tsukumogami, or animate household item that has acquired a yokai spirit, residing in the home. These yokai can be thought of as some of the scariest because they dwell in the same spaces as us, living in places that we usually consider safe and secure. These tsukumogami leave behind signs, such as markings on the walls, to remind us that they, too now occupy our spaces (Foster 274).

Photo from: http://sensiblerita.blogspot.com/2015/10/kasa-umbrellaman-obake.html

Photo from: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Karakasa

Kasa-obake

The Kasa-obake, also called Karakasa-bake, is a haunted umbrella yokai. They are Chinese-style paper umbrellas that startle humans by sneaking up on them and licking them, staining them in oil (Meyer 208). Instead of having an umbrella handle, these yokai hop on one single hairy male leg, wearing a single geta, or Japanese wooden sandal (Yoda and Alt 108). They have one eye, two arms and one very long tongue.

These yokai don’t directly harm or behave violently toward their victims. Kasa-obake are sometimes even considered cheerful and lovable characters (Foster 274). They simply find fun in surprising and startling humans, often wiggling their tongues for an especially frightening effect. The best way to survive an encounter with Kasa-obake is to bore them by not giving them the satisfaction of seeing your fear. It is advised to ignore them and not react when they show themselves (Yoda and Alt 109). In their field guide “Yokai Attack!” authors Hiroku Yoda and Matt Alt assure their readers to not worry about the Kasa-obake because “they are believed to possess extraordinarily short attention spans” (109). While Kasa-Obake are relatively harmless, there are other more dangerous umbrella spirits that they should not be confused with (Meyer 208).

Folktales

There are no known folk tales that are specifically about the kasa-obake, but it has become a core example of yokai iconography. Kasa-obake can be found in artwork dating back to the Edo period as well as in more recent films and manga. It appears in the Hyakkiyagoyo-zu, a 17^th century picture scroll from the early Edo period attributed to Kano Toun. Toriyama Sekien also included the kasa-obake in the 1784 picture scroll Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. However, these depictions of the yokai differ from what has now become popular. These older depictions are of what was then called the hone-karakasa or “bone umbrella.” More popular depictions can be found in contemporary works such as Mizuki Shigeru’s manga illustrations and in the film The Great Yokai War from 2005 (Foster 274-275).

Photo from: The Metropolitan Museum Gallery

Unidentified Actor in the Role of an Umbrella Monster

The first appearance of the Kasa-obake dates back to the Edo Period (1615-1862) in an 1852 woodblock print painting by artist Utagawa Hirosada. Hirosada is famously known for his painting “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” In Hirosada’s painting “Unidentified Actor in the Role of an Umbrella Monster,” a Kabuki actor is featured wearing a Kasa-obake costume. Kabuki is a classical style of Japanese theatre where performers sing and dance while wearing elaborate makeup and costumes. In this painting, the Kabuki actor is depicted with his painted face popping out of the top of an umbrella (The Metropolitan Museum).

Photo from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn

In Lafcadio Hearn’s 1901 book A Japanese Miscellany, Hearn includes the lyrics to many Japanese children’s songs. One of the songs clearly mentions a monstrous umbrella spirit:

“Spread the ganguri-umbrella.

A ganguri-umbrella I will not have!

Now in the honorable city of Yedo, is fashionable

The Serpent’s-Eye-umbrella” (Hearn 178).

The children sing about the ganguri-umbrella, an umbrella that is painted in all black with a white band on the top. When the umbrella is opened the white ring around its top looks like a serpent’s eye (Hearn 178). Hearn also describes the Karakasa-tombo, or “Umbrella Dragonfly.” This creature has a body that looks like a closed umbrella. The Japanese word karakasa literally means “closed umbrella,” and is another name for the Kasa-obake. The Karakasa-tombo is made of split bamboo and covered in thick oilpaper, much like the contemporary Kasa-Obake (Hearn 85).

Kasa-obake toy, photo from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa-obake

Kasa-Obake regained popularity in the 20th century, appearing in many contemporary works. It has been commercialized and commoditized in video games, cartoons and plastic figurines and toys that are sold in stores. The cute-ification of the Kasa-Obake has made it a popular character for audiences of all ages. He has appeared in video games such as Super Mario Land 2 and Muramasa--The Demon Blood video games. He also is a starring character in Mizuki Shigeru’s GeGeGe no Kitaro manga series (“Of Men and Umbrellas”).

GeGeGe no Kitaro series

In the Mizuki Shigeru’s GeGeGe no Kitaro manga series and TV anime cartoons, Kasa-obake is called Karakasa and appears as both the protagonist Kitaro’s alley and his enemy. Karakasa is not a specific character but rather a species that regularly makes appearances in different stories. In the 6th episode of the anime series, Karakasa is seen scaring tenants and landlords in an apartment building. Kitaro defeats him, making him stop bringing chaos to the lives of humans. Karakasa is emotional and sad about leaving the apartment building when he is evicted. He is protective of his friends and enjoys drinking sake with the other yokai tenants (GeGeGe no Wikitaro).

Karakasa, Photo from: Episode 24 of the 1971 anime "GeGeGe no Kitaro"

Karakasa's also appears in the 1964 manga “I’m a Freshman” when he and Hitotsume Kozo are sent to play with Mizuki Shigeru’s daughter, Hanaku. In this context, the Kasa-Obake is portrayed as a cute and childish character, when paired with the Hitotsume-kozo. In the Shonen sunday 1971 weekly manga series, Kasa-Obake appears as the antagonist in the story “Kasa-bake.” In this story he steals Kitaro’s chanchanko, a padded, sleeveless kimono vest, which is an iconic and powerful part of Kitaro’s outfit. Kasa-obake uses the vest’s magical powers to disguise himself as a young boy named Kotaro Matsushita who is the son of a wealthy family. Kasa-obake has frequent heat vision attacks, enabling Kitaro to defeat him using a mirror. Kittaro bounces heat vision through the reflective glass back at Kasa-Obake who then burns to death. Kasa-obake also appears in a live-action GeGeGeno Kitaro movie where he is hired to work with other yokai to scare tenants out of apartment buildings. After scaring the tenants he captures them in his umbrella and spins around before finally dropping them on the ground. Kitaro captures Kasa-obake along with the other yokai: Nupperabo, Bake-zori (straw sandals), and Beto-Beto San. Kitaro scolds and punishes them before they return to the yokai world. Kasa-obake is known to be able to spin and fly, by collapsing the air inside while closing and opening. They are also capable for disappearing in a flash and transporting to other places (GeGeGe no Wikitaro).

Photo from: http://jpninfo.com/3549

Tsukumogami

Tsukumogami are animate household objects or “tool spectators. After serving humans for 100 years they are given souls (Reider 231). Tsukumogami were originally a medieval phenomenon of the Edo and medieval periods. These yokai are trickers who resent the human masters whom they loyally served for years only to be abandoned. Tsukumogami hope to seek revenge on the humans that mistreated them (Reider 232).

Tsukumogami were originally a medieval phenomenon in works from the Edo and medieval periods in Japan. They appear in the Tsukumogami ki story, which is a part of a genre called otogizoshi, or companion tales, short stories written from the 14^th to 17^th centuries (Reider 232). These tales are amusing and entertaining but also have religious undertones that are meant to teach morals to the readers. Through Buddhist teachings the Tsukumogami are able to put the spiteful and negative energy they have towards humans into religious service, eventually attaining Buddhahood through the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism (Reider 233). These stories were written to inspire people to realize the significant impacts of Shingon Buddhism. If even yokai as ordinary as Tsukumogami could attain enlightenment, surely humans could too.

There are two version of the Tsukumogami ki story with one version missing certain narrative scenes. However, both versions share the same general plot. The tale takes place during the 10^th century in Japan’s capital city of Heian where objects have been discarded and abandoned in lonely places such as alleyways and street sides. These Tsukumogami become upset with their masters whom they served so faithfully, but who still only ended up abandoning and mistreating them. They decide to take revenge on their former owners by kidnaping and eating them. They celebrate their success by throwing a big Shinto festival of drinking, gambling, and poetry recitation (Reider 234). When they pass by the Imperial Palace where the Prince Regent is having a party, his sonsho darani charm detects the Tsukumogami and attacks them, causing the yokai to flee. The emperor of the palace calls for a bishop to perform religious rituals to cleanse the Imperial Palace and protect it. The priests discover and capture the Tsukumogami who promise to convert to Buddhism. The Tsukumogami enter priesthood and study Buddhist teaching, managing to achieve Buddhahood by becoming Shingon Buddhist devotees. In his article “Animating Objects,” Noriko Reider cites the ending of the story, which ends with a moral. “If you wish to know the deep meaning of [the tale], it is that we should quickly escape from the net of Exoteric Buddhism and enter Shingon Esoteric Buddhism” (Reider 235). In this sense, these stories serve as a way of encouraging readers and listeners to also become devotees.

The depictions of Tsukumogami are written in two different scrolls owned by Sofukuji in Gifu Prefecture (Reider 242). In some of the illustrations depict banquet scenes with dismembered human flesh ready to be served at a table setting. These images parody the tale of Shuten Doji, the demon who is a leader of a band of Oni. Shuten Doji similarly engages in disgustingly violent behaviors like drinking human blood (Reider 242). While Shuten Doji was defeated and killed, the Tsukumogami were given a second chance at life and an opportunity to better themselves through religious devotion (Reider 243). Reider writes, “It should be noted that the lesson in Tsukumogami ki pertain not only to spiritual, but moral and financial issues as well. The fact that tools and objects were casually thrown away indicates that replacements were rapidly produced, suggesting a significant development in productivity in the Muromachi period” (Reider 246). Reider shows that these stories also illustrate the socioeconomic statuses that people in Japan held during the Muromachi period when there was a development in productivity, which made for easy reproduction and replacement of objects.

Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakki_Yagy%C5%8D

In the Kamakura period (1185-1333) Tsukumogami images appeared in setsuwa, short stories and in picture scrolls, specifically the Hyakkiyagyo emaki where objects are seen marching across the page (Foster 8). When anything, be that humans, animals, plants, or in animate objects, lives for long enough it can attain a spirit that takes over the body (Foster 6).

Related Yokai

The Kasa-obake has often been compared to or associated with other yokai characters. In the 18th century artist and folklorist Toriyama Sekien drew a connection between the Kasa-obake and the Shifun. The Shifun is a sea creature with a dragonhead and fish body that has the power to make it rain. When the Shifun caused rainfall, umbrellas were left in the rainy streets and eventually became Kasa-obake spirits that wandered through the streets at night (Yoda and Alt 108).

Illustration from Yokai Attack! by HIroko Yoda and Matt Alt, Illustrations by Tatsuya Morino

Bura Bura

Kasa-obake is often seen paired with Bura Bura, the haunted lantern yokai who is found in similar places. The Bura Bura was a lantern originally used to light restaurants (Yoda and Alt 108). It can be helpful, guiding the way in the dark as seen in the Studio Ghibli Film “Spirited Away” when the protagonist Chihiro is lost on her way to visit the benevolent witch Zeniba. However, like Kasa-obake, Bura Bura can also be mischievous, taking pleasure in jumping out of the darkness to scare and startle unprepared humans passing by at night. Both yokai are made of paper and wood, and walk or fly on a single leg or pole (Yoda and Alt 107).

Photo from: Matthew Meyer's yokai.com

Bake-zori

Kasa-Obake is also often paired with Bake-zori, a pair of mischievous straw sandals that unworn and left behind on the genkan, the traditional entryway to a Japanese house where shoes and umbrellas are usually kept. These sandals have arms and legs and one eye each (Meyer 208). In “The Great Yokai Encyclopedia” author Richard Freeman tells the story of Kasa-obake, Bake-zori, and Bura Bura startling an unsuspecting passerby. A Buddhist monk was traveling alone and sought shelter for the night in a small rundown temple in the mountainside. This temple had been abandoned and empty for a long time with dust and cobwebs gathering inside. The monk fell asleep only to be awoken in the middle of the night by voices in the dark asking if he knew who they were. “‘I have one leg and one eye. Who am I?’ asked a ghost,” Freedman writes. “‘I have a square face and two teeth and three eyes. Who am I?’ asked another ghost. ‘I have a fire in my round paper body. Who am I?’ asked the last ghost. The priest stood up and cried in a loud voice, ‘First is the ghost of umbrella. Next is the ghost of geta. Last in the ghost of Japanese lantern’” (164). The spirits then disappeared.

Hitotsume Kozo

Following the theme of single body parts, the Kasa-obake has often been compared to the Hitotsume Kozo (Foster 274). The Hitotsume Kozo is a one-eyed goblin-like priest that resembles a tiny Buddhist monk. He is harmless, but like the Kasa-obake, is very good at startling people. Hitotsume Kozo are also pranksters that jump out to terrify people with their one eye and very long tongue. They wear traditional monk attire, sometimes even seen carrying religious items like rosaries (Yoda and Alt 160).Folklorist Kunio Yanagita thought that Hitotsume Kozo is derived from folktales about Shinto. These priests were so devoted to their religious practices that they voluntarily poked out one of their eyes to better achieve mystic wisdom from the gods” (Yoda and Alt 161). Typically an encounter with a Hitotsume Kozo involves seeing one large glowing eye in the dark and then having a Hitotsume Kozo jump out in front of you and loudly wiggle its abnormally long tongue (Yoda and Alt 160-161). This attack very clearly mirrors that of the Kasa-obake with similar physical features and scaring techniques.

Hitotsume Kozo, Photo from: Matthew Meyer's yokai.com

Hitotsume Kozo is very childlike in both his demeanor and his stature. There are many accounts of stories in which people have seen little boys facing away from them. When the boys turn to face forward, they reveal the one eye, causing people to run away in terror or even collapse with fear. In one account, a woman sees a little boy on the street that asks her, “Ma’am would you like some money?” (Meyer 158). She agrees and then faints in terror when he turns to face her, revealing a face with only one eye. In Eastern Japan it is believed that on December 8th, the Hitotsume Kozo travels around recording the names of families that have done bad things on a ledger that he will use to determine their fortune for the next year. He then brings these reports to the God of Pestilence and bad luck that brings bad fortune to the families that misbehaved. There is a ceremony in the middle of January where people burn and rebuild deity’s shrines on roadsides with the hopes to destroy Hitotsume Kozo’s ledgers before they can be collected by the God of Pestilence (Meyer 158).

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