Zashiki-warashi

In recent years, television programs and magazines have reported about various Iwate Prefecture ryokan where it is said to be possible to see a zashiki-warashi.

It is also said that at night, they would do pranks such as riding on top of guest room futons and turning over the pillows in order to not let the person sleep, and when attempts are made to stop it, it would be too strong and powerful for anyone to even affect its actions.

[4] In Gonohe, Aomori Prefecture, there is a legend of how when a new house is built, a zashiki-warashi can be called into it by burying a golden ball under the floors.

This aspect shows that zashiki-warashi are like gods of fortune or protective spirits that rule over a family's prosperity and decline.

[10] According to the Tonō Monogatari, the house of a certain wealthy family in the town of Tsuchibuchi had a small space that was called the "Zatō room", and it is considered to be the room that would be used to await the Zatō (a kind of member of the builder's guild such as the tōdōza or members of related groups such as the Anma, moxibustion practitioners, and members of the biwa hōshi, among other organizations) every time a banquet was called,[11] but the literary researcher Sukeyuki Miura surmises that perhaps this room was used to give worship to the god's protective spirit.

It is said that the spirits of such children would, on rainy days, walk around outer edges, shaking and frightening the guests, which is said to be seen to resemble deeds similar to that of a zashiki-warashi.

[10] The aforementioned notabariko and usu-tsuki warashi are seen to be lower ranking among the zashiki-warashi, and the former would peek out from the inner dirt floor (doma) room and crawl around while the latter would use a mortar to make a sound.

Due to such acts,[12] it is sometimes suggested that these kinds of zashiki-warashi have a relation to the fact that the location where the infanticide happened is in the dirt floor (doma) room or underneath a mortar.

[16] Concerning why zashiki-warashi look like children, seeing how in Buddhism there are gōhō-warashi (wrathful gods that protect Buddhism and take on the appearance of a child), there is the theory that they come from folk beliefs in how children connected gods and humans,[7][17] as well as the theory that the appearance of a child embodies divinity.

[9] In Ueda Akinari's late Edo-period yomihon the Ugetsu Monogatari, in the story "Hinpuku-ron" (Theory of Wealth and Poverty), in Mutsu Province (now Aomori Prefecture), in a certain home of a warrior family, a spirit of money appears in the form of an old man going by the name of "Ōgon no Seirei" ("golden spirit") who said "I'm glad you treat money as something important to you, so I came to tell a story", but the doctor of letters Masamichi Abe suggests that perhaps this is an older, more prototypical type of zashiki-warashi.

According to Kunio Yanagita's Yōkai Dangi (妖怪談義), it is said that in the year 1910 or Meiji 43 around the month of July, in the village of Tsuchibuchi (now Tōno, Iwate Prefecture) in Kamihei District, Rikuchū, a zashiki-warashi appeared at a school that was visible only to the first year students and not to the older students and adults.

[19] Certain ryokan that have continued to be managed in the Shōwa and Heisei periods and beyond such as the Ryokufūsō at the Kindaichi Onsen in Iwate Prefecture,[20] the Sugawara Bekkan, and the Warabe both in Tenjin village in Morioka Prefecture are known to be lodges where a zashiki-warashi dwells; there have been tales of guests who saw zashiki-warashi, heard footsteps, were physically touched.

[3] However, unlike in the usual legends of zashiki-warashi, the one at Ryokufūsō is considered to be an ancestor that died from an illness and became a protective spirit.

"Akashaguma" refers to the fur of a bear that has been stained red, and it is said that a little childlike being wearing this would tickle the old woman owner of this house every night.

[23][24] In Ishikawa Prefecture, there is the makuragaeshi and it is said that if one sleeps in the zashiki of a certain house, especially if one wields two swords, has hair that stands up, wears western clothing, and puts on a haughty face, then one would get dragged into a neighboring room.

The zashiki-warashi of Shirotori, Ōkawa District, Kagawa Prefecture (now part of Higashikawa), is said to appear as a little girl who is called oshobo due to the small, slight (shobo-shobo in Japanese) way it hangs, and sometimes it is said to be invisible to the members of the house,[3] while other times it is said to be visible only to the members of this house.