Tsurubebi

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"Tsurubebi" (釣瓶火) from the 'Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien

The tsurubebi (釣瓶火, "bucket fire") is a fire yōkai that appears in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien.

Concept[]

The illustration does not give any explanatory text, but according to Toriyama Sekien Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, (editor-in-chief, the literary scholar Takada Mamoru, and publisher ), they are known by the other names tsurube-otoshi and tsurube-oroshi, and the original kind are the ones that are depicted in the Edo period kaidan (mysterious tale) book, the , under the title of the "Nishioka no Tsurube-otoshi", where they are yōkai that appear as balls of fire.[1] It gives the interpretation that Sekien also depicted this in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and titled it "Tsurubebi."[2]

Interpretations from yōkai-related literature of the Shōwa and Heisei periods onwards almost always consider the tsurubebi to be an atmospheric ghost light that is similar to the tsurube-otoshi[3] or as a different kind of yōkai altogether from the tsurube-otoshi. In the Shikoku and Kyushu regions, they are considered to be spirits of trees that have turned into bluish-white balls of fire that would dangle[4] or suddenly come down from tree branches near mountain paths on quiet nights and then dangle and repeatedly go up and down like a bur,[5][6] and it is said that despite being called flames, they would never burn the tree itself, sometimes faces of humans or animals would appear from within the fire.[4][6] They have also been given the interpretation of being the light of bioluminescent bacteria that grow in the fungi and humus attached to tree branches.[6]

Notes[]

  1. ^ ・田中直日編 (1992). 鳥山石燕 画図百鬼夜行. 監修. . p. 52. ISBN 978-4-336-03386-4.
  2. ^ 編著 (2000). 妖怪事典. 毎日新聞社. pp. 225–226. ISBN 978-4-620-31428-0.
  3. ^ 妖怪ドットコム (2008). 図説 妖怪辞典. . p. 135. ISBN 978-4-344-81486-8.
  4. ^ a b (1990). 幻想世界の住人たち. . Vol. IV. . pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-4-915146-44-2.
  5. ^ 草野巧 (1997). 幻想動物事典. 新紀元社. p. 201. ISBN 978-4-88317-283-2.
  6. ^ a b c 水木しげる (1994) [1991]. 図説 日本妖怪大全. . 講談社. p. 289. ISBN 978-4-06-256049-8.

See also[]

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