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