Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Tamazusa, 玉梓, Gyokumen
Category: Ghost

The Myth

Tamazusa is a beautiful but treacherous woman in Kyokutei Bakin’s epic novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. She becomes a central figure in the events that bring ruin upon the rulers of Awa Province and sets in motion the curse that drives the story of the eight dog warriors. Tamazusa is a favored concubine of Jin’yo Mitsuhiro, lord of Takita Castle, who indulges in drinking and women and allows her to influence his government. Retainers who bribe or flatter her receive rewards, while loyal and capable servants are neglected or dismissed. Among those who benefit from this corruption is Yamashita Sadakane, a powerful retainer who secretly maintains an affair with Tamazusa. Together, they contribute to the collapse of Mitsuhiro’s rule. Sadakane eventually tricks his enemies into killing Mitsuhiro, seizes Takita Castle, and takes Tamazusa as his wife.

Sadakane’s tyranny provokes resistance, and an army led by Satomi Yoshizane eventually captures Takita Castle. Sadakane is killed by his own defecting retainers, and Tamazusa is brought before the victors to answer for her role in the corruption of the former lord’s government and her relationship with the traitor. She defends herself by arguing that, as a woman, she had little control over her circumstances and that she became Sadakane’s wife only after Mitsuhiro’s death left her without a home. Her arguments fail to persuade Kanawan Hachiro, who condemns her as a deceptive woman whose outward beauty conceals an evil heart. Yoshizane briefly considers sparing her, moved by her beauty and pleas for mercy, but Hachiro insists that her crimes demand punishment. Yoshizane ultimately orders her execution. Enraged, Tamazusa curses Yoshizane and Hachiro, declaring that they will suffer ruin and that she will lead their descendants toward the path of beasts and worldly desires. She is beheaded, but her hatred survives her death and becomes the source of a lasting supernatural curse.

Tamazusa’s vengeance continues to affect the Satomi family long after her execution. When Hachiro later commits seppuku, the shadow of a woman believed to be Tamazusa’s vengeful spirit clings to his son, Kanawan Daisuke, although only Yoshizane can see it. In time, Tamazusa’s spirit takes the form of a female tanuki named Gyokumen. The transformed spirit raises an orphaned puppy while bathing it in her resentment, and the dog is eventually taken into the Satomi household. Named Yatsufusa, it grows into a powerful animal and becomes the beloved companion of Yoshizane’s daughter, Fusehime. Through this deception, Tamazusa’s curse enters the Satomi family itself. Her vengeance ultimately sets the stage for the adventures of the eight dog warriors, each associated with a jewel representing one of the eight virtues of benevolence and righteousness. Thus, Tamazusa’s death marks not the end of her influence but the beginning of the supernatural trials that shape the epic’s central story.

Sources

“Tamazusa.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1071886536.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Iwatou, 岩藤
Category: Ghost

The Myth

Iwafuji is a notorious female villain in Japanese jōruri and Kabuki theatre, best known for her role in Kagami-yama Kokyō no Nishikie. She serves as a lady-in-waiting to Ohime, the daughter of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and conspires with her brother, Kenzawa Danjō, to seize power within the household. Driven by jealousy toward Onoe, a senior retainer who enjoys the princess’s trust, Iwafuji uses cruel schemes to humiliate her rival and ultimately drive her to suicide. Iwafuji’s triumph is short-lived, however, as Onoe’s maid, Ohatsu, avenges her mistress by killing the villainous lady-in-waiting. Iwafuji became a celebrated theatrical villain, and her character was reportedly inspired by real ladies-in-waiting in the households of powerful feudal lords. When the actor Onoe Matsusuke I played Iwafuji in 1805, rumors spread that the performance portrayed a senior woman of the women’s quarters at Edo Castle, prompting an investigation by the town magistrate’s office.

In later plays that continue Iwafuji’s story, she returns from the dead as a vengeful ghost. One prominent version appears in Kagami-yama Gonichi no Iwafuji, also known as Kotsuyose no Iwafuji, written by Kawatake Mokuami and first performed in 1860. In this story, Iwafuji’s remains are left in a horse burial ground after her death at Ohatsu’s hands. Her spirit lingers there until Ohatsu, who has earned praise for her loyalty and become the second Onoe, visits to pray for the repose of her predecessor’s soul. A dark flame suddenly rises, and scattered bones gather together before flesh begins to return to the corpse. Iwafuji reappears with disheveled hair and decaying skin, greeting Ohatsu with a curse and promising to haunt the Taga family, torment Hanazono-hime, and assist Mochizuki Danjō in his plot to seize power. Although a protective sword briefly drives her away, she returns in a beautiful, almost supernatural form, carrying a parasol and playing with butterflies as she floats through the air above the cherry blossoms.

Iwafuji continues her revenge by helping the conspirators undermine the Taga household. When Hanazono-hime falls ill under the influence of a malevolent spirit, the villains falsely accuse the second Onoe of cursing her. Iwafuji disguises herself as Danjō and uses forged documents and accusations to corner Onoe, even repeating the humiliation inflicted upon the first Onoe by beating her with a sandal. The ghost’s deception is eventually exposed when Sekiya uses a shrine of Kishimojin to make her vanish and restore the palace to its proper state. Iwafuji later confronts Onoe again, wielding a snake-eye umbrella and renewing her curses, but Inukiyo drives her away by presenting the sacred image of Kishimojin. This time, her spirit finally disappears, and her body returns to a skeleton before shattering into pieces. The play’s spectacular scene in which the resurrected Iwafuji floats through the air is known as Fuwa Fuwa and remains one of the story’s theatrical highlights. Through her resurrection and repeated attempts at revenge, Iwafuji becomes a figure of relentless malice whose grudges persist beyond death.

Sources

“Iwafuji.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741612.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Karaginu, 唐衣
Category: Ghost

The Myth

During the reign of Emperor Toba, Ishikawa Juro Yoshitoshi and his wife Ukihashi, who lived in Hino Village south of Kyoto, prayed to Kannon Bodhisattva for a child. Ukihashi eventually gave birth to triplets, born during the hours of the tiger, snake, and monkey. Ashamed of having three children at once, she concealed the birth from her husband and entrusted two of the girls to a wet nurse, keeping the third to raise herself. Years later, three beautiful women named Han’i, Tamaki, and Kono Kimi were brought to serve Emperor Toba by two of his consorts, Taikenmon’in and Kōyōin. Han’i gained the emperor’s particular affection and became pregnant, provoking the jealousy of Bifukumon’in, the emperor’s favorite. Bifukumon’in plotted against her rival, using false accusations to have Han’i arrested. Her companions, Kono Kimi and Tamaki, were arrested alongside her. All three women were stripped, tortured, and killed by officials acting under Bifukumon’in’s influence. Han’i’s death was falsely presented as suicide, and their bodies were buried at Shimizu Hill, at a place known as Kemonozuka, or Beast Mound.

The murdered women returned as vengeful spirits, tormenting their enemies and members of the imperial family. Their curse first brought about the deaths of a mountain ascetic’s wife and the ascetic himself. In 1153, their combined spirits took the form of a monstrous creature that appeared above the Imperial Palace, terrifying the young Emperor Konoe with its cries. The monster possessed the head of a monkey, the limbs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake, while its shriek resembled the cry of the nue. Minamoto no Yorimasa and Ino Hayata eventually shot the creature down, but its death did not end the women’s vengeance. Dark flames burst from its wounds and vanished into the clouds. The sisters’ spirits later appeared to Ishikawa Yoshikane, a nephew of Yoshitoshi, revealing their true origins and explaining that they had been falsely accused. Han’i was identified as Yoshitoshi’s daughter, born during the hour of the snake and given the childhood name Asaji. The spirits continued their pursuit of revenge, taking the forms of animals associated with the hours of their births. The slaying of the nue was therefore only one episode in their prolonged supernatural campaign against those who had wronged them.

Sources

“Karaginu.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1084390107.html

Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Sayogoromo Osayo, 小夜衣おさよ
Category: Ghost

The Myth

Osayo is a tragic woman who becomes a vengeful ghost in Konomaboshi Hakone no Shikabue, a Kabuki play written by Kawatake Mokuami and first performed in 1880. Born into the Iozaki family in Shizuoka, she is a beautiful and dutiful woman married to Iwabuchi Kurobei, a former samurai. After the Meiji Restoration, Kurobei’s business ventures fail and his debts mount, forcing Osayo to sell herself to a brothel called Ebiya in Odawara to support him. Working under the name Sayogoromo Osayo, she quickly becomes one of the most popular courtesans in the region. Despite attracting the attention of Gantetsu, a monk and regular customer who knows her history, Osayo remains devoted to her husband and refuses to abandon him. Her loyalty persists even as she entrusts her young daughter, Omitsu, to the care of an old acquaintance, the sword sharpener Ryosuke, while continuing to work to support Kurobei.

One day, Kurobei visits Osayo and claims that his debts have become so overwhelming that he intends to take his own life. When debt collectors arrive demanding more than one hundred yen, Osayo is desperate to help him. The innkeeper Jubei and his wife Osen take pity on the couple, lending the money needed to settle the supposed debt. Osayo later discovers that the entire scene was a deception: the collectors were Kurobei’s accomplices, and he had squandered the money she earned on his mistress, Yamaneko Okitsu, and his own indulgences. Devastated by his betrayal, Osayo is taken by Jubei to Hakone to recover. There, at the Fukuzumi Inn, she encounters both her former fiancé, Atsuhara Isonosuke, and Kurobei with Okitsu, who mock her suffering. Overcome by rage, Osayo confronts the pair with her mother’s keepsake, a Muramasa dagger. Kurobei wounds her while resisting, then attempts to kill her at Okitsu’s urging. As she dies in the mountains of Hakone, Osayo declares that her resentment will not disappear simply because people in the modern age deny the existence of ghosts. Her death marks the beginning of her transformation into an onryō, a spirit consumed by vengeance.

After returning to Tokyo, Kurobei claims that Osayo was murdered by bandits and takes Okitsu as his second wife. He soon falls gravely ill, however, and is tormented by visions of Osayo appearing in the shadows and accusing him of her murder. When the dagger he sold comes into the possession of Isonosuke, and Kurobei’s younger brother Yoshichi begins questioning him, Kurobei finally confesses his crime. He resolves to commit seppuku, hoping to preserve his family’s honor and atone for his actions, but Osayo’s ghost continues to appear before him. She acknowledges that his remorse is justified but refuses to let him escape through suicide, declaring that her hatred will not be satisfied until she has killed him herself. His delirium intensifies, and an attempted exorcism led by Gantetsu descends into violence. Clutching the dagger, Kurobei attacks Gantetsu, while Yoshichi wounds Kurobei during the struggle. Driven into complete madness, Kurobei flees and attacks the former accomplices who helped deceive Osayo, as well as Okitsu. Okitsu, who has discovered that she is Ryosuke’s long-lost daughter and regrets her past actions, accepts her fate and dies by Kurobei’s blade. Yoshichi takes responsibility for Kurobei’s crimes before the authorities, leaving Kurobei ruined and alone. The play reflects the anxieties of the Meiji period, when supernatural apparitions were increasingly explained as symptoms of nervous disorders, yet ghost stories continued to portray vengeful spirits with terrifying immediacy.

Sources

“Osayo.” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741630.html