Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Plate Counter, Sara-kazoe
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Sara-kazoe is a ghostly yokai depicted as a woman emerging halfway from an old well, with flames issuing from her body as three plates rise into the air around her. Her terrifying appearance is associated with the tragic tale of a maid who was murdered after accidentally dropping one plate from a set of ten into a well. The woman had been entrusted with the precious plates, and the loss of even one brought terrible consequences upon her.

After her death, the maid’s ghost returned to the well every night. There, she counted the plates aloud, slowly numbering them from one to nine before breaking into a sorrowful cry, unable to reach the missing tenth plate. Her nightly lament became an eerie reminder of the injustice done to her, and her spirit remained bound to the well where her life had ended.

The legend of Sara-kazoe is associated with the famous Japanese ghost story of Okiku from Banshū Sarayashiki, the tale of the Plate Mansion of Banshu. The old well in Banshu is identified as the place connected with the haunting, where the murdered maid’s spirit continues to count the plates. Through her repeated cries and fiery apparition, Sara-kazoe embodies the suffering of a wronged woman whose death left her trapped in an endless cycle of grief.

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Sources

“皿数え (Counting Plates).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1067140521.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Daki no Obyaku, Hyakuno O-Hyaku
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Daki no O-Hyaku was a notorious villainous woman whose name was associated with the legendary Chinese temptress Daji, the infamous consort of King Zhou of the Shang dynasty. In Japanese tales, O-Hyaku was portrayed as a beautiful and ruthless woman whose ambition, seduction, and cruelty brought ruin to the men and households around her. Her story became especially infamous through tales of murder, betrayal, robbery, and schemes to seize the wealth and power of the Satake family of Akita.

In the popular stories, O-Hyaku was born as the sister of a fisherman named Shinsuke and entered domestic service at the home of Tokubei, a wealthy shipowner in Naniwa. After becoming his mistress, she revealed her cruel nature by accusing his pregnant wife, Otaka, of infidelity and driving her from the household. O-Hyaku then indulged in a life of luxury until Tokubei’s business collapsed. The pair travelled to Edo, where O-Hyaku met Hikogorō, a notorious bandit, abandoned Tokubei, and became Hikogorō’s lover. She established a geisha house in Fukagawa and sometimes performed as a geisha under the name Kosan.

When O-Hyaku later encountered Tokubei, who had fallen into poverty and become a ragpicker, she pretended to calm his anger and lured him to a deserted reclaimed area of Fukagawa. There she stabbed him in the stomach with a large kitchen knife and pushed him into a pond. When he struggled to rise, she kicked him back into the water until he died. As she prepared to leave, Tokubei’s ghost appeared before her as a pale blue ball of fire, hovering around her in silent accusation. Rather than show fear, O-Hyaku mockingly told the spirit to illuminate her way home like a paper lantern. His ghost became one of the most chilling signs of the wickedness attributed to her.

O-Hyaku’s ambitions grew beyond personal wealth. She joined forces with Nakagawa Chūdai, an official serving the Satake family in Edo, and plotted to corrupt the family lord, Satake Sakyō-no-daibu, by encouraging him to indulge in alcohol and pleasure until he became incapable of ruling. Their ultimate goal was to seize the wealth and power of the Akita domain. Other tales accuse O-Hyaku of deceiving a blind travelling entertainer named Omine, selling her daughter, and arranging for Hikogorō’s men to murder her. She was also said to have escaped exile on Sado Island, extorted money from wealthy farmers near Niigata, and eventually become a pirate commanding numerous followers. Her schemes ultimately failed, and she was cornered by her pursuers.

Behind O-Hyaku’s transformation into a monster of cruelty lay the vengeance of a supernatural sea creature. Long before, Tokubei’s father, Tokuzō, had been sailing aboard the Satake family’s ship, the Sen-nichimaru, when a violent storm arose and a giant sea monk, or umibōzu, appeared offshore. Tokuzō courageously borrowed the lord’s sword and cut the monster down with a single stroke. The slain creature’s vengeful spirit flew inland and possessed O-Hyaku, transforming her from a naturally gentle woman into a figure consumed by lust and wickedness. At the end of the turmoil, when O-Hyaku was surrounded and could no longer escape, an enormous monk-like figure rose behind her, towering to an impossible height. Declaring that the vengeance had run its course and that the events should serve as a warning to future generations, the giant vanished. Freed from the sea spirit, O-Hyaku returned to her former gentle nature and was captured without resistance. In one version, she repented of her crimes and accepted death at the hands of Tokubei’s son, believing this was the only fitting end for her. She died at the age of twenty-five.

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Sources

“妲己のお百 (Dakki no O-Hyaku).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1060567084.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Kuruwa Bunko Shikishima Monogatari
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Shikishima is a beautiful courtesan who was kidnapped as a young child and sold to the pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara. Despite her frail health, she rises to become a high-ranking courtesan at the Miuraya brothel. With only three months remaining on her contract, she dreams of freedom but is troubled by her love for Fujishiroya Jūzaburō, a man who is already married. Her life takes a terrible turn when she is falsely accused of stealing valuables from sleeping customers. The real culprit, the greedy madam Otsume, conspires with the servant Genshiro to frame Shikishima and conceal their own misdeeds. When Shikishima refuses to confess, she is brutally tortured. Her young daughter Wakano is brought in and tortured alongside her, forcing Shikishima to accept the blame in an attempt to spare the girl further suffering.

Afterward, Shikishima discovers that the accusation was part of a larger plot to silence her because she knew of the secret affair between Genshiro and Otama, the wife of the Miuraya’s owner. Genshiro intends to kill her to protect their secret. As Shikishima lies dying, she curses her tormentors and vows to make them understand the consequences of their actions. Genshiro mocks her challenge to return as a ghost before cutting her throat with a dagger. He makes it appear that she has eloped and fled the brothel, stuffs her body into an old wicker basket, and throws it into the sea. A mysterious flame rises from the water, and Shikishima’s vengeful spirit begins to haunt Genshiro. Her ghost glares at him with burning resentment, appearing alongside eerie, shadowy flames and pursuing him wherever he goes.

Shikishima’s spirit eventually appears in a wicker basket that rises from the water, revealing her seemingly fresh corpse with its eyes suddenly opening to glare at her murderers. She accuses Genshiro of falsely framing her and condemning her to a horrible death. Even when he challenges her to kill him, her ghost refuses to leave, declaring that she cannot abandon a land filled with hatred without taking revenge. She also visits Jūzaburō in a dream, asking him to care for their daughter and promising that they will be reunited as husband and wife in the afterlife. Before disappearing, she entrusts her daughter’s future to him. Guided by the revelations of her spirit, Jūzaburō and Shikishima’s allies begin uncovering the truth and bringing those responsible for her death to justice. The shadowy flame that accompanies the revenge finally goes out when Otama is beheaded, marking the end of Shikishima’s haunting.

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Sources

“敷島 (Shikishima).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741624.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Otsuya
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Otsuta, also known as Otsuya, is the daughter of a fishmonger who becomes a concubine in the household of the samurai Isobe Kazuenosuke. Favored for her beauty, she becomes entangled in a conspiracy led by the wicked retainer Iwagami Godayu and his son Tenzo, who seek to control the Isobe family. When Otsuta overhears their secret plans to poison their rivals, Tenzo decides to silence her. He first attempts to force himself upon her, but she refuses him. When Monzaburo intervenes and helps her escape, Tenzo accuses them both of adultery to conceal his own crimes.

Otsuta attempts to defend her innocence before Kazuenosuke, but Tenzo’s lies and accusations turn her master against her. She is tortured, falsely accused of breaking a precious family teacup, and forced to drink poisoned water. As she writhes in agony, Otsuta swears that she will soon return to take revenge. Tenzo mockingly challenges her to come back as a ghost, claiming that he has never encountered one outside a play. Kazuenosuke then strikes her repeatedly with his sword, and her body is thrown into a well where a former master had also murdered a concubine. Soon afterward, rain and wind extinguish the lights, and Otsuta’s ghost appears amid smoke and a sudden burst of flame before vanishing.

Otsuta’s spirit later appears to Monzaburo as he prepares to commit seppuku after being falsely accused of adultery. She stops him and reveals the conspiracy of the Iwagami father and son, explaining the truth she had been prevented from telling while alive. Although she has returned from the dead, Otsuta declares that she does not hate Kazuenosuke. Grateful because the money she earned in his service once helped save her family from debt, she intends to remain in the world of the living to protect his household. Monzaburo promises to safeguard her family, and Otsuta’s ghost disappears with a joyful expression. Her revelations help expose the conspiracy, leading to the downfall of the villains and the restoration of justice.

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Sources

“おつた (Otsuta).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741622.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Akao Nyudo
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Akaō Nyūdō was a legendary ruler who lived in the Akaō area of Ōba, in present-day Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture. He was said to have possessed vast lands and employed numerous farmers, making him a powerful figure in the region. His origins remain mysterious, and some traditions claim he was the younger brother of Hachisuka Koroku, a warrior who served Toyotomi Hideyoshi. According to local legend, Akaō Nyūdō’s downfall began when a feudal lord preparing to cross Hakone for his required alternate attendance journey attempted to conscript the local farmers as labourers. Akaō Nyūdō intervened, offering the farmers generous wages to work for him instead. Enraged by this interference, the lord ordered an arson attack on Akaō Nyūdō’s residence. His lands and possessions were burned, and his entire family was destroyed, leaving behind a legacy of resentment and tragedy.

Many years later, during the Tenpō era, a man reclaiming land in the Abara area unearthed a large, unglazed earthenware jar. Inside was vermilion ink used for seals. When the man attempted to wash it away, the ink seemed inexhaustible, with more continually appearing no matter how much he removed. Troubled by this strange occurrence, he eventually took the jar home and used it as a water container. However, every night at around three o’clock in the morning, a ladle would mysteriously fall into the jar and rattle around by itself. The unsettling phenomenon continued until the frightened family dedicated the jar to Mishima Taisha Shrine. Because the jar had been found in the very area where Akaō Nyūdō’s residence had supposedly burned, people began to suspect that the vengeful spirits of his family were responsible for the strange events.

The curse was said to persist through subsequent generations. During the Meiji era, a fire broke out at the home of a descendant of the man who had discovered the jar. The flames spread to a distant property belonging to the same family, and one of its members fell to their death from the second floor while attempting to extinguish the blaze. Even more strangely, enormous pumpkins grew in the burned area, frightening the local inhabitants. During the Shōwa era, further misfortunes struck Akaō, including an outbreak of dysentery, strengthening local fears that the spirits had not been appeased. To calm the restless dead, the villagers eventually erected a tomb for Akaō Nyūdō and began holding annual prayers for his soul on September 1st, hoping to bring an end to the disasters associated with his name.

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Sources

“阿古入道 (Ako Nyūdō).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1066794960.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Seigen, Seigen Ajari, Jikyūbō
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Seigen was a Buddhist monk whose forbidden love and tragic death made him a restless spirit who relentlessly haunted Sakurahime, a beautiful princess. In the tale Sakurahime Azuma Bunshō, Seigen was originally known as Jikyūbō, a monk at Hase-dera Temple. In his former life, he had fallen in love with a young acolyte named Shiragikumaru. The two attempted to die together by throwing themselves into the sea at Chigogafuchi on Enoshima Island. However, when Shiragikumaru leapt into the swirling waters, Seigen hesitated and became too frightened to follow. He alone survived, carrying the memory of their tragic love for seventeen years.

Seigen eventually became a high-ranking priest at Shin-Kiyomizu Hase-dera Temple. There he met Sakurahime, a seventeen-year-old woman who had come seeking ordination after the murder of her father and younger brother. She had been born with a left hand that could not open, a deformity that had prevented her from marrying. When Seigen prayed for her, her fingers finally opened, revealing a small incense-box lid inscribed with his name. It was the very object Shiragikumaru had clutched when he drowned, and its appearance revealed that Sakurahime was the young acolyte reborn. Their connection was therefore bound to a love that had crossed the boundary between life and death.

Sakurahime soon abandoned her plans to become a nun after encountering Tsurigane Gonsuke, the man who had assaulted her in the past. She chose to marry him, while Seigen became consumed by his renewed feelings for her. Accused of violating his vows, he was expelled from the temple and punished with a hundred lashes. His suffering drove him into madness and obsession. He began confusing Sakurahime with Shiragikumaru and resolved to marry her, even though she rejected him. When Sakurahime’s child was kidnapped and abandoned during a violent confrontation, Seigen rescued the infant and pursued her while dressed in ragged clothing, carrying the child with him.

Seigen later fell ill and took refuge in a hermitage, where a jealous priest named Zangetsu attempted to poison him. Seigen struggled with his attacker and was drenched in the poison, turning half his face purple before he was beaten unconscious. A sudden storm and lightning strike eventually revived him. When Sakurahime tried to flee, Seigen confronted her and revealed the truth about their previous lives. Desperate to unite with her in death, he pursued her with a knife, but accidentally fell into a grave and stabbed himself in the throat. He died at last, yet his vengeful ghost immediately rose behind Sakurahime and continued to follow her.

Even after Sakurahime became a courtesan known as Furin-hime, Seigen’s ghost haunted her bedside night after night, frightening away her customers and ruining her livelihood. He appeared and vanished like a shadow, glaring at her with resentment and refusing to leave her alone. Sakurahime eventually learned from the spirit that the child she had been separated from was her own, and that Gonsuke was involved in a conspiracy against her family. The revelation set in motion a final chain of violence in which Sakurahime killed Gonsuke and her own child before reclaiming her former status. Seigen’s tale became one of Japanese theatre’s enduring stories of passion, reincarnation, forbidden love, and a dead man’s spirit unable to release its hold on the woman he believed was destined to be his.

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Sources

“清玄 (Seigen).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1067067896.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Miyagi
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Miyagino was a beautiful courtesan who lived in Suruga Province during Japan’s Sengoku period. She was admired not only for her beauty but also for her skill in calligraphy, her knowledge of waka poetry, and her compassionate nature. At a gathering held on a full-moon night in August, Miyagino joined a group of young men composing poems about the moon. Her verses expressed the sorrow and longing of a woman whose life as a courtesan had brought her many painful separations. Among those listening was Fujii Seiroku, the unmarried heir to a wealthy family. Captivated by her beauty and character, he paid a large sum to secure her freedom and married her. Although Seiroku’s mother initially disapproved of the marriage, Miyagino’s kindness and devotion soon won her affection, and she came to treat her daughter-in-law with great love.

When Seiroku’s uncle in Kyoto became gravely ill, Seiroku travelled to the capital to visit him. Miyagino encouraged him to go, believing it was his duty to care for his family, and the couple exchanged sorrowful poems before his departure. After his uncle died, Seiroku distributed his inheritance among the widow and children and attempted to return home. However, warfare spread throughout the provinces, and military checkpoints prevented him from reaching Suruga for an entire year. With communication almost impossible, he could not discover whether his wife and mother were still alive. Meanwhile, Seiroku’s elderly mother grew increasingly ill from grief and longing. Miyagino cared for her day and night, praying that she might take her mother-in-law’s suffering upon herself, but the old woman eventually died. Miyagino was devastated by the loss and became so thin and sorrowful that those around her pitied her.

In the eleventh year of the Eiroku era, Takeda Shingen’s army invaded Suruga. Soldiers entered the homes of ordinary people, committing acts of violence and brutality. When they discovered Miyagino, they pursued her, intending to violate her. Rather than submit to them, she fled into a back room and hanged herself. The soldiers were moved by her tragic fate and buried her beneath a persimmon tree behind her house. By the time Seiroku finally returned, his home lay in ruins, overgrown with weeds, and his mother and wife were nowhere to be found. A servant eventually told him what had happened. Seiroku dug beneath the persimmon tree and uncovered Miyagino’s body. Astonishingly, her skin had not lost its colour, and she appeared as beautiful as if she were still alive. Overcome with grief, Seiroku buried her alongside his mother and spent about twenty days visiting their grave each morning and returning home at dusk.

One night, as Seiroku sat alone beneath a starry sky, Miyagino appeared before him like a shadow. She explained that she had received permission to return after bidding farewell to the deity who recorded the sins of the dead. Weeping, she told him of her suffering and how their marriage had allowed her to abandon her former life and follow a virtuous path. She believed her violent death was retribution for her previous existence, but her filial devotion had earned her a remarkable reward: permission from the heavenly and earthly authorities to be reborn as a boy. She instructed Seiroku to visit the wealthy Takakura family near the Kamakura Pass, where she would be born the following day. When he met the child, she promised, the boy would smile as proof of her return. Seven days later, Seiroku visited the family and met their infant, who had remained in the womb for twenty months and cried constantly after birth. The moment the baby saw Seiroku, he stopped crying, smiled brightly, and began making joyful sounds. Recognizing this as the sign Miyagino had promised, Seiroku revealed their story to the family and thereafter maintained a close relationship with them, treating them as his own relatives.

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Sources

“宮城野 (Miyakino).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1060375378.html

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