Akashita

Concerning the name "akashita", the modern literary scholar Atsunobu Inada among others suggest that they are related to the shakuzetsujin (赤舌神) and shakuzetsunichi (赤舌日), who protect the western gate of Tai Sui (Jupiter) as explained by onmyōdō.

In the Edo Period yōkai emaki Hyakkai Zukan (Sawaki Suushi, 1737), the Bakemonozukushi (author and year unknown, held by Kagaya Rei), the Bakemono Emaki (author and year unknown, at the Kawasaki City Museum), there is a yōkai depicted called the "akaguchi" (赤口 or あか口) that appears to be modeled after the "akashita" drawn by Sekien.

They have a wide open red mouth (including the tongue), the clawed hands, the hairy face, which are points of commonality with the beast depicted as covered with black clouds in the Jikkai Sugoroku and the "akashita" of Sekien.

[4] According to the Edo Period writing Kiyū Shōran (嬉遊笑覧), it can be seen that one of the yōkai that it notes is depicted in the Bakemono E (化物絵) drawn by Kōhōgen Motonobu is one by the name of "akaguchi.

"[4] Concerning "akaguchi", Katsumi Tada favors the idea that they come from the shakkō / shakku (赤口) of the rokuyō (六曜, a system of lucky and unlucky days).

In the Yōkai Gadan Zenshū Nihon Hen (妖怪画談全集 日本篇) (1929) by the folklore scholare Morihiko Fujisawa, besides Sekien's picture of the "akashita" published for illustration, there is the following caption: The thing that arrives and opens the gates to wash away the fields of evildoers is mainly that odd thing, akashita (何物か至りて関口を開き悪業の田を流す其主怪こそ赤舌なり)[5]essentially stating that it washes away the fields of evildoers.

The Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi (1974) by Norio Yamada writes that an Akaguchi appeared at a farming village in the Tsugaru region in the Aomori Prefecture and resolved a dispute over water for the fields.