Umi zatō

Umi zatō (海座頭) is a Japanese yōkai, or supernatural being, in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien and in various emakimono such as the Matsui Library's Hyakki Yagyō Emaki.

In yōkai depictions, they are depicted looking like a giant biwa hōshi standing above the sea holding a rod in the right hand and carrying a pipa on their back.

[1] There is no accompanying explanatory text in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō or Hyakki Yagyō Emaki, so it is unknown what kind of yōkai this was intended to be.

[2] In books published in the postwar era, there has been the interpretation that this is a kind of umibōzu, which frequently appear off the coast of Sanriku, Rikuchū Province (now Iwate prefecture).

[4] There is also the theory that they appear above the sea taking on the appearance of a zatō (a kind of member of the blind persons' guild such as the tōdōza or a ranking of members of related groups such the Anma, moxibustion practitioners, and members of the biwa hōshi, among other organizations) to frighten people.