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