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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Hitotsumebō, One-Eyed Monk
Category: Demon
Hitotsumebō is a one-eyed yōkai with a single eye on its forehead. From the small opening on its forehead, it spews something outward.
No further legend or story is given for Hitotsumebō.
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “一つ目坊 [ひと‐めぼう] (Hitotsumebō).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). June 10, 2009. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010652586.html
Tradition: Ukrainian mythology
Alternative Names: Likho, Liho, Lykho, Лихо, One-Eyed Likho
Category: Demon
Likho is an embodiment of evil fate and misfortune. It is commonly depicted as a one-eyed, old and skinny woman dressed in black, known as One-Eyed Likho. In other traditions it appears as an evil male forest goblin. In Ukrainian folklore, it can also cling to a person’s neck.
Likho appears in fairy tales as a bringer of misfortune. A person who encounters it may attempt to deceive or escape from it, but their greed or foolishness can lead to disaster. In one tale, a person escapes from Likho while being pursued, but then sees something valuable and grabs it. Their hand becomes stuck to the object, forcing them to cut off their own hand.
In another tale, Likho tricks a person and climbs onto their neck. The person attempts to drown the creature by jumping into a river, but drowns themselves instead, while Likho survives and floats away to pursue other victims.
Likho can also be passed from one person to another, with someone receiving or giving away the creature as though it were a gift.
According to popular superstition, Likho comes to eat people, and stories of it were particularly used to frighten children. Its very nature is associated with bad luck: encountering Likho means becoming caught in misfortune from which escape may come only through cleverness, while greed or poor judgment can make the situation even worse.
“Likho.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed September 12, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likho
Tradition: Polish Mythology
Alternative Names: Żyrownik, Zhyrownik
Category: Demon
Żyrownik is a fat, obese demon that lives in household pantries and chambers.
When properly treated and fed, usually with fresh cow’s milk, Żyrownik helps increase the household’s supply of food and protects the home from evil spirits. Once a year, the household holds a symbolic feast for him as thanks for his protection.
If the household neglects or mistreats Żyrownik, he does not take revenge. Instead, hunger leaves him too weak to protect the house. Hostile demons, including the devil, can then enter the household.
“Żyrownik.” Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia (Polish Wikipedia). Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed September 12, 2026. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BByrownik
Tradition: Greek mythology
Alternative Names: Cacodemon, Cacodaemon, Cacodaimon, Kakodemon, Kakodaemon, Kakodaimon
Category: Demon
A cacodemon is an evil spirit capable of shapeshifting. The word comes from the Greek kakodaimōn, meaning “evil spirit.” Unlike a cacodemon, a daimon in Greek tradition could be a neutral or benevolent supernatural spirit.
Cacodemons are described as malevolent supernatural beings and can also refer to evil or malicious people. In one depiction attributed to Greek mythology, a cacodemon appears as a young, horned or winged-browed figure with exaggerated physical features.
Cacodemons are the evil counterparts of agathodaemons or eudaemons, which are benevolent spirits. In later tradition, the term came to mean a demon or malevolent supernatural being.
“Cacodemon.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed September 12, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacodemon
Tradition: Latvian Mythology
Alternative Names: Lietuvēns, Lietonis, Lītūņš
Category: Demon
Lietuvēns is usually described as a small, wretched-looking child that moves quickly. It sometimes takes the form of an ugly, vicious woman resembling a witch. It can enter houses through holes, cracks, keyholes, or other small openings and always leaves through the same place by which it entered.
Lietuvēns is believed to be the soul of a murdered person who was strangled, drowned, or hanged and is cursed to remain in the world for as long as that person was originally meant to live. In some beliefs, it is the soul of an unbaptized child.
At night, Lietuvēns rides upon sleeping people and domestic animals, particularly horses and cows, and strangles or crushes them beneath its weight. Its victim rapidly becomes exhausted and covered in sweat, losing their strength as the creature tortures them. The victim may see only a glimpse of Lietuvēns and feel its entire weight pressing down upon them, making it difficult to breathe or move. Eventually the creature leaves, sometimes leaving the victim close to death. Sleep paralysis is therefore understood as an attack by Lietuvēns.
Lietuvēns can also attack animals, although it is said not to torment people or animals that were born during the daytime.
A person attacked by Lietuvēns can drive it away by moving the little or big toe of the left foot. The creature immediately flees.
The Lietuvēns cross is another protection against the creature. It may be a simple pentagram or a larger double form made from two pentagrams. The strongest form is associated with the auseklis, the morning star and the victory of light over darkness. The sign can be placed on doors, thresholds, windows, animals, or even on the fingernails of someone suffering from an attack. It must be drawn in a single continuous movement; if the line is broken, the protection will not work.
Lietuvēns may also be trapped by sealing the hole, crack, or keyhole through which it entered. A piece of mottled wood is used to close the opening. If the creature cannot find a way out, it may transform into a beautiful young woman and remain inside the house until the opening is restored. As soon as the exit is opened, she escapes.
Farm animals can be protected by attaching a knife, comb, or scythe to their backs, since Lietuvēns can be injured by sharp objects. It may also be driven away with a rowan stick when caught behind an animal’s left ear. Oiling an animal’s back makes it too slippery for Lietuvēns to ride, and animals with a cut right ear are also said to be avoided by the creature.
Lietuvēns can finally be freed by finding its body and burying its bones with proper honors. At the moment of burial, a thunderstorm and lightning are said to arise, signifying that the troubled soul has finally been taken into the other world.
“Lietuvēns.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed September 12, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lietuv%C4%93ns
Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Mujō Daiki, Great Impermanence Demon
Category: Demon
Mujō Daiki is a fearsome demon who holds a great wheel representing the five realms of rebirth. He symbolizes impermanence and the unavoidable cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
All living beings within the five realms are trapped by the Great Demon of Impermanence, with no escape from him. He is also associated with the King of Death, or what is commonly called the Grim Reaper. No living being is said to be free from his grasp.
The wheel held by Mujō Daiki represents the cycle of existence. At its center is an image of Buddha, surrounded by a pig, a snake, and a dove, representing the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion.
Below the center of the wheel is Hell, while the realms of hungry ghosts and animals appear on either side. The realms of humans and heaven are positioned above them.
Around the outer edge of the wheel are five pairs of buckets containing people. The buckets represent life and death, constantly being filled and emptied like water being drawn up and poured away. They symbolize the endless continuation of rebirth through successive lives and deaths.
Outside the wheel, at the feet of Mujō Daiki, eighteen characteristics are shown. They begin with ignorance in the form of a demon and continue through the twelve links of dependent origination: volition, consciousness, name and form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, being, birth, old age, and death.
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “無常大鬼 [むじょうだいき] (Mujō Daiki).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). March 10, 2019. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074019646.html
Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Tontari Maō, Greedy Demon King
Category: Demon
No physical appearance is given for Tontari Maō in the surviving account.
After Emperor Jimmu had pacified the barbarian enemies of Japan, the country was governed peacefully for generations. A demon king who coveted Japan was unable to invade and was forced to live in solitude off the coast of Chiguraka, at the boundary between China and Japan.
Eventually, however, disorder began to spread throughout the country. Seeing his opportunity, the Demon King invaded Japan with tens of thousands of demons and evil gods. He defeated the Kongo God and occupied the renowned Mount Kongo, declaring himself the Greedy Demon King. He then began transforming the land into a realm of demons. Clouds and fog covered the sky, storms caused the mountains and rivers to overflow, floods devastated the country, and plague spread throughout the land.
Amida Buddha of the Pure Land saw the suffering of living beings and decided to subdue the demons. He constructed a magnificent jade ship shaped like a phoenix, raised brocade sails, and departed from paradise accompanied by countless Buddhas and gods. The ship traveled through the western countries and then through China, where it gathered holy figures including Emperor Wenchang and King Wenxuan. It crossed the Milky Way and passed through the heavenly realms before reaching Takamagahara. There, accompanied by Amaterasu and the other gods, it descended upon Mount Kongo.
When the Greedy Demon King saw the Buddhas descending, he summoned clouds, mist, wind, and rain and turned the mountain into a fortress. The Three Treasures God, protector of the Buddhas, appeared at the summit and unleashed lightning, setting the vegetation on fire. The demons attempted to extinguish the flames with rain, but failed, and even the Demon King’s mansion was burned down.
The Demon King’s army fled toward the river. The Three Treasures God dammed the river mouths on all four sides, while water poured down from the Milky Way until the mountain was transformed into a sea. Unable to withstand the raging waters, the Demon King returned to the mountaintop.
Tontari Maō and the Three Treasures God then fought each other with sacred swords. Marishiten, Bishamonten, and Fudō Myōō came to the aid of the Three Treasures God, while the Demon King’s allies joined the battle. The Gale Demon King attacked Fudō Myōō, the Fierce Lion Demon King attacked Bishamonten with an axe, and the Heavenly Dragon Demon King struck Marishiten with an iron club.
After a fierce battle, all of the Demon Kings except Tontari Maō were defeated and disappeared. The Three Treasures God’s eight-directional sword flashed like lightning and cut down the remaining demons one after another. The surviving demons fled, but billions of treasure arrows fired from a thousand-pound divine bow struck them, wounding tens of thousands and forcing them toward the open sea.
Tontari Maō, however, turned back toward the mountains with tens of thousands of his followers. He bowed before the Three Treasures God, confessed his former wrongdoing, and vowed from that moment onward to change his ways and obey the Buddha and the gods.
The Three Treasures God accepted their repentance and instructed them not to hesitate to correct their mistakes, but instead to change their ways and accumulate good deeds. He promised to report their repentance to Amida Buddha, have their sins removed, and make them his followers.
The repentant demons were overcome with emotion and chanted “Namu Amida Butsu” together. Amida Buddha then descended in the phoenix-shaped ship, accompanied by numerous Buddhas and gods. The light of Buddha illuminated the entire land, and Tontari Maō attained enlightenment through the virtue of Buddha.
He then vowed to bestow blessings upon devout practitioners even while naked and became the “Original God of Poverty.” The place where this deity stood was thereafter called Naked Forest.
Mount Kongo, meanwhile, came to be called Kojin-yama after Sanbō Kojin, and eventually Funagata-yama because of the arrival of the phoenix-shaped ship.
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “貪多利魔王 [とんたりまおう] (Tontari Maō).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). December 8, 2018. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1073154559.html
Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Akiya Akuzaemon, Akuzaemon
Category: Demon
Akiya Akuzaemon is a hulking demon with thick eyebrows and round eyes. He wears a plain kimono with a white collar and plain hakama worn high around the waist. His voice seems to echo from deep within the earth.
Akuzaemon appears in Izumi Kyōka’s 1908 novel Kusa Meikyū (Grass Labyrinth). He is an Akuzaemon, a type of demon said to dwell in “the blink of an eye of a human.” Several Akuzaemons haunt Akiya Residence, a mansion feared because five people connected to the Tsuruya family had died there one after another.
A wandering ascetic monk named Kojiro Hoshi stays at the abandoned mansion to pray for the dead. At the same time, a young man named Akira Hagoshi has taken refuge there while searching for a childhood hand-clapping song once sung by his deceased mother. Strange phenomena repeatedly occur around him: tatami mats jump by themselves, knives disappear, lanterns float in the air, loud crashes echo through the house, and even eggplants in a bowl make strange noises.
The Akuzaemons are responsible for these disturbances. They attempt to frighten Akira into leaving the mansion, even causing him to dream that he has poisoned Kojiro Hoshi. In the dream, however, Akira repents and attempts to take his own life, causing their plan to fail.
Akuzaemon eventually appears before Kojiro Hoshi and introduces himself as the Akuzaemon of Akiya. He has been protecting a young woman named Ayame, who has been possessed by a demon and has been staying within the mansion. Ayame decides to leave and asks Akuzaemon to arrange one final meeting with the monk.
Ayame appears before Kojiro Hoshi and sings the childhood temari ball song that Akira has desperately wanted to hear. She explains that she cannot meet Akira directly because doing so would draw him into the same supernatural situation that has overtaken her. She also says that Akira’s mother, who is in heaven, continues to worry about him and pray for him from among the clouds.
After singing, Ayame prepares to leave before Akira awakens from his dream. She is accompanied by a young girl with a rabbit’s face and a lady-in-waiting with a dog’s face. When Akira awakens and tries to cling to Ayame, Akuzaemon reappears and shouts for them to be allowed through. The yokai board a boat that suddenly appears in the garden.
Ayame disappears behind the boat’s curtain. With Akuzaemon’s sleeve serving as a sail, the boat is carried away by the wind and disappears from Akiya Residence.
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “秋谷悪左衛門 [あきやあくざえもん] (Akiya Akuzaemon).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). July 25, 2015. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1034642612.html
Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Ouma, King Demon
Category: Demon
Ouma is a demon-like yokai whose entire body is covered in a substance resembling neither a straw cloak nor fur. It has two horns on its head, white hair, a pointed mouth, and long red claws. Something resembling wings extends from its back.
Ouma is a type of yokai sometimes depicted in Japanese picture scrolls of various monsters. It is particularly known from the Hyakuyōzu, a picture scroll produced around the end of the Edo period that depicts forty-eight types of yokai.
Takahashi, Toshihiro. “王魔 [おうま] (Ōma).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). August 1, 2016. https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1059827009.html
Tradition: Philippines Mythology
Alternative Names: Lagtaw
Category: Demon
Lagtaw is a tall, black demon with huge, fiery eyes. It hides within the knots of trees, remaining concealed until it emerges to frighten boys and girls.
“Латгав (Latgav).” New Bestiary (Bestiary.us). Accessed September 12, 2026. https://www.bestiary.us/latgav/en