Hitodama

In the Okinawa Prefecture, hitodama are called tamagai, and in Nakijin, they are said to appear before a child is born[3] and in some areas are also said to be mysterious flames that drive off humans to death.

[4] In Kawakami, Inba District, Chiba Prefecture, (now Yachimata), hitodama are called tamase, and are said to come out of the body 2 or 3 days after a human dies, and go toward temples or people they have a deep relation with.

Every year at the Fusa-park in Tokyo the legendary feast Hotarugari (蛍狩り; meaning "firefly catching") is celebrated.

They have also been thought to possibly be misrecognitions of shooting stars, animals that have luminous bryophytes attached to them, gasses that come from swamps, light bulbs, or visual hallucinations.

There have also been some "artificial hitodama" created using combustible gasses (an experiment in 1976 by the Meiji University professor, Masao Yamana using methane gas).