Kasa-Obake

Kasa-obake, also known as Karakasa, is a yokai that is shaped like an umbrella. With one eye, a long tongue, and a singular leg with a geta sandal, it is the tsukumogami of an old fashioned Japanese style umbrella. These umbrellas were often created with bamboo and oil paper. The style and design of Kasa-Obake is similar to the yokai that is most likely it's ancestor, known as Hone Karakasa, which was made up of a chinese style umbrella (Yokai.Com). This yokai was first introduced by Toriyama Sekien, a man who created encyclopedias full of different yokai and even created some of his own (Foster). Despite the similarities between these two yokai, Hone Karakasa tends to be larger and has a slightly different purpose than Karakasa. Hone Karakasa would often appear only in wet or windy weather, dance in the streets, and warn the people of storms to come (Yokai.Com). Their general designs were rather similar though. Both umbrellas commonly had a ring around the top that looked like an eye when opened. For Karakasa, it is theorized that this design may be the reason that kasa-obake is shown with only one eye (Foster 274). In yokai culture, it is very common to have a yokai with features similar to those of a humans, but in some way the feature is distorted, just like the singular eyeball. In kasa-obake’s case, this distorts it from the natural human feature of two eyes (Foster 274). This separates these creatures from the comfort of what we perceive as “normal”, allowing them to become monsters instead of something familiar. Fear is also created out of this distortion.

Despite its creepy appearance, Kasa-obake is pretty much a harmless creature. It never intends to harm humans, but instead it is just looking to have fun. It’s most common form of attack is running up to humans and delivering a giant lick with its tongue (Ashcraft 117). There are also some cases where they will hide in an umbrella rack and lick anyone who tries to pick it up. Though slightly traumatizing and disgusting, Kasa-obake doesn’t pose much of a threat to anyone.

Tsukumogami: History & Kasa-obake

Household objects that are given spirits, like Karakasa, are known as tsukumogami. Specifically, this transformation occurs when the object turns 100 years old. This liminal age allows the object to host a spirit and turn into a yokai that takes on either a good or evil personality based on how it's owner treated it during it’s life. This transformation is also spurred on when the owner discards the object. Usually the year before the object reaches a hundred years of age, the owner discards the object during the annual cleaning of the house, known as Susuharai, because the objects are considered “unlucky” when they reach their 99th year. This festival is used to cleanse the misfortune brought by these objects from Japanese households (Reider, Tool Spectors 1). If an object is thrown out this way, however, it may feel as if it was betrayed by its owner and take on an evil and murderous spirit that can only be corrected through Buddhist rituals, as seen in the origin story of these yokai that follows (Reider 232).

This next section, as summarized wholly from Noriko Reider's journal article titled The Record of Tool Spectors (pages 1-19), tells the origin story of tsukumogami and their first apperance in history. During the Koohoo Era, tools discarded during Susuharai, the annual cleaning of the house, gathered together to discuss why their owners discarded them after their years of hard work. Some were angry and wished to exact revenge on these owners, while other said that they should restore their karma so that they might be able to return to their previous households: however, the evil objects beat the benevolent ones and plotted further against their owners (Reider, Tool Spectors 2). They decided to wait until the eve before the lunar new year in attempt to gain souls from the powers of yin and yang, which were switched on this fateful day. On that day, they greeted the god of creation who gave them spirits that allowed for them to vent their anger against the humans. They moved to a location close to the capital and began to kill and terrorize the people who lived there (Reider, Tool Spectors 6). One day, a regent and his journeying party ran across a parade of Tsukumogami and many of his men become filled with fear. The regent, however, felt no fear and was able to attack the tsukumogami with a pendant he had with him, which scared them off. When the regent told the emperor of this strange occurance, he immediately sent for bishops who would pray to the gods to keep the yokai from attacking their people. This effort was successful and the tsukumogami were defeated by the divine power (Reider, Tool Spectors 12). However, some tsukumogami were spared under the promise that they will no longer attack humans. This was the very first story of how Tsukumogami began to appear in history.

Kasa-Obake in Modern Times

Karakasa is a yokai that has appeared much more in modern times than in the past. For this reason, it makes many appearances in the media of today’s world, including, but not limited to, anime and films. One of the primary works it is featured in is Mizuki Shigeru’s Gegege no Kitaro (Cameron). This anime, adapted from the manga under the same title, was extremely successful in Japan and lead to spike of yokai culture in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Another popular anime that this yokai has appeared in is Yokai Watch (Cameron). This is an anime about befriending yokai and using them in battles, one of which is Karakasa itself. Besides Karakasa’s success as a character in this anime, it’s appearances did not stop there. It also appeared in another major work known as The Great Yokai War, directed by Takashi Miike (Cameron). For the most part, Karakasa does not play huge roles in any of the media it is featured in, but it tends to make special appearances or provide some sort of comic relief. This aligns with it’s basic description provided in the previous section. It is not a particularly popular yokai, and because of its roots in more modern times over ancient ones, it tends to be less represented in the overall idea of yokai, like in media, because it is not as well known as some other yokai. For the fact that it is used mainly as comic relief, this aligns with the fact that it’s main “attack” is to startle people by licking them without actually hurting them, and it is rather hilarious for unlookers.

Karakasa have also made an impression in the marketing of yokai. Despite being only side characters in the mass media, they tend to be a rather famous figure for the culture as a whole. You can find different merchandise based on this yokai, and even a Hatsune Miku figurine in the shape of it (Cameron).

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