Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 樹中住餓鬼, Tree-Dwelling Hungry Ghost
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Juchūjū Gaki is one of the thirty-six types of hungry ghosts described in Buddhist teachings. It is a tormented spirit condemned to exist trapped inside the trunk of a tree. Like a tiny insect burrowing within wood, it is confined in an extremely narrow space, unable to move freely and suffering continual agony.

Those who cut down trees that provide cool shade or destroy the groves surrounding Buddhist temples are said to risk being reborn as Juchūjū Gaki. Their punishment reflects the harm they inflicted upon trees that offered shelter and upon sacred temple forests. In the afterlife, they experience the same helpless confinement that their actions brought upon the natural world.

Depictions of these suffering spirits appear in the Kitano Tenjin Engi and the Rokudō-e paintings preserved at Shōjūraigōji Temple. In these images, hungry ghosts are shown trapped within hollow tree trunks, twisting and suffering inside their wooden prisons. Their fate serves as a warning against destroying trees that provide shade and protection.

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Sources

. “受注受餓鬼 (Juchūju Gaki).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010655143.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Kiuchi Sōgorō, Sōgo, Sakura Gimin
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Sakura Sōgo was a village headman in the Sakura Domain of Shimōsa Province during the early Edo period. He became famous for defending farmers who suffered under the heavy taxes imposed by the ruling Hotta clan. After his attempts to secure tax relief failed, Sōgo decided to appeal directly to Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna. Although such a petition offered the desperate farmers a chance of relief, it meant defying the domain lord and risking severe punishment.

Sōgo eventually presented his appeal to the shogun at Kan’ei-ji Temple in Ueno, Edo. He was arrested and handed over to the Hotta family, who condemned him to death. According to the legend, Sōgo was crucified alongside his wife, Osan, and their three children. Their deaths transformed the family’s suffering into a powerful tale of injustice and vengeance, with Sōgo remembered as a righteous man who sacrificed everything to protect the villagers.

After their execution, the ghosts of Sōgo and his family began haunting the Hotta household. They appeared in terrifying forms, sometimes carrying the wooden posts used in their execution, and tormented the domain lord and his attendants. Their supernatural attacks were said to bring illness, fear, and misfortune upon the ruling family, eventually contributing to the downfall of the Hotta clan. In theatrical depictions, Sōgo’s ghost emerged from different parts of a room while the faces of those present twisted into grotesque shapes. Other illustrations showed his bloodied spirit confronting the domain lord, with skeletal features visible through his body.

The story became famous through ghost tales, storytelling performances, and kabuki plays, particularly Higashiyama Sakura Sōshi. Later versions expanded the haunting to include Kōzen, a monk and relative of Sōgo who took his own life after learning that the children had also been executed. He became a vengeful spirit and joined the curse against the ruling family. Although the historical details of Sōgo’s life remain uncertain, his legend endures as a story of a wronged man whose spirit returns to punish those responsible for his family’s suffering.

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Sources

“桜宗護 (Sakura Sogo).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1066979229.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: Ayako, The Monk of Arashiyama Madly in Love
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Ayako is a mysterious apparition from a Japanese ghost story set in the early sixteenth century. She was a beautiful seventeen-year-old woman, the daughter of a silk merchant in Kyoto, who fell in love with Sentarō, a young apprentice working in her father’s shop. Although Sentarō returned her affection, he initially suppressed his feelings out of gratitude to his master and fear that their difference in status would bring misfortune upon her. When he finally confessed his love, the merchant secretly arranged for Ayako to marry another man. On the night before the wedding, Ayako disappeared, leaving Sentarō a heartfelt letter promising that they might meet again.

Devastated by her disappearance, Sentarō abandoned his position, shaved his head, and became a Buddhist monk named Jōun. He withdrew to a ruined temple called Rengein, hidden in the mountains near the Hozu River. Although he devoted himself to religious practice, his obsession with Ayako never faded. One night, while calling out for her to visit him even if she were a ghost, a beautiful woman appeared before him. She wore only a purple cloth around her waist, with her long black hair falling loosely over her shoulders and chest. Her pale skin, bright eyes, and red lips made her appear more beautiful than ever. She claimed to be Ayako and told Jōun that she wished to become a nun, but when she entered the temple’s sealed hall, the doors closed behind her and she vanished.

Desperate to find her, Jōun battered his way through the temple’s many doors until he reached the innermost hall. There he found no Ayako, only an old mirror. In a fit of rage, he smashed it and discovered a statue of Kannon, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, hidden beneath it. The statue wore a cloth around its waist and resembled the apparition he had seen. Convinced that the statue was Ayako herself, Jōun tore it from its pedestal and embraced it, keeping it beside him for two days before realizing that it was only wood. Overcome by despair, he decided to end his life.

Jōun climbed to a cliff above the Hozu River, confessed that he had defiled the sacred hall and its Buddhist statue, and declared that he would find Ayako in death. Clutching the statue of Kannon, he threw himself into the raging current. The following morning, a fisherman named Senzo cast his net into the river and discovered the bodies of the dead monk and the wooden statue. From a distance, the statue had appeared to be a naked woman, making the scene resemble the tragic reunion of two lovers in death.

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Sources

“綾子 (Ayako).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074589144.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 鑊身餓鬼, Cauldron-Bodied Hungry Ghost
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Kakushin Gaki is one of the thirty-six types of hungry ghosts described in Buddhist teachings. It is a tormented spirit reborn into the realm of hungry ghosts because of greed and jealousy during its former life. Those who hoarded wealth out of insatiable avarice and slaughtered living creatures were said to be reborn as Kakushin Gaki, condemned to endure terrible suffering after death.

The creature has an enormous body, but its arms and legs are long and slender like the legs of a metal cooking cauldron. Its face has no eyes, leaving it without the ability to see. Its body is perpetually engulfed in flames, and it twists and writhes in agony as the fire burns it without respite.

Kakushin Gaki appears among the tormented spirits depicted in the Gaki-dō Katsu-gaku no Zu, an illustration of the suffering of hungry ghosts preserved at Shōjū Raigōji Temple in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture. In the painting, the creature writhes in flames on an island, its distorted body displaying the relentless punishment endured by those condemned to the hungry ghost realm.

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Sources

“隠身餓鬼 (Kakushin Gaki).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010655140.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: 中有, Chūin, Intermediate Existence
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Chūu refers to the intermediate state between death in the present world and rebirth into the next life. In Japanese Buddhist belief, this period lasts forty-nine days, during which the deceased’s spirit is believed to travel between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This wandering period is sometimes called the journey of Chūu.

During these forty-nine days, the deceased undergoes a series of judgments by the Ten Kings of the underworld. From King Shinkō through King Taizan, these judges pass judgment on the dead, with King Enma confronting the deceased on the thirty-fifth day. Buddhist memorial services are traditionally held every seven days, from the seventh day after death until the forty-ninth day, when the intermediate period ends.

In the Japanese illustrated scroll Hyakuyōzu, a strange ghostlike creature is named Chūu. It stands among bushes with its face concealed and clutches a sotoba, a wooden memorial tablet used in Buddhist funerary rites. Its hidden face and funerary object evoke the image of a spirit lingering between the world of the living and the afterlife, unable to complete its journey.

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Sources

. “中有 (Chūu).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010655125.html

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Tradition: Japanese Mythology
Alternative Names: ママオッカ
Category: Ghost

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The Myth

Mamaokka is a terrifying supernatural being said to appear in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. According to local belief, an empty winnowing machine could summon this frightening creature when someone turned its mechanism without any grain inside. Mamaokka was described as a terrifying presence or an ogre that emerged in response to this unusual act.

The winnowing machine, known as a tōmi, was a box-shaped agricultural tool used to separate grain from husks and pieces of straw. Turning its internal wheel created a current of air that blew away the lighter waste while the heavier grains fell through a funnel. The belief that operating an empty machine could summon Mamaokka transformed an ordinary farming tool into a source of supernatural fear.

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Sources

“ママオッカ (Mamaokka).” 新版TYZ 妖怪図鑑 (New TYZ Yokai Encyclopedia). https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1010654452.html

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