Nana Maminashvili
The magical practices have been widespread in the past almost everywhere. People were always keen to believe in something supernatural and magical. Therefore, they were creating magical creatures, ghosts and phantoms with supernatural powers.
The Hyakkai Zukan (百怪図巻, Illustrated Creeps) , was a collection of various yōkai (妖怪, “ghost”, “phantom”, “strange apparition”- a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore) from the 18th century (published on 1737) by Sawaki Sūshi. It was based on Japanese literature, folklore and artwork. Below we will talk about some of those monsters and spirits.
Kitsune
In Japanese folklore, foxes have a common place. Kitsune (狐, Kitsune) – fox spirit is a magical and intelligent being and can shape shift into men or women according to yōkai folklore. In some folktales Kitsune can trick others but in others – they are friends, lovers and faithful guardians. In general, Kitsune is portrayed with 9 tails. The more tail it has, the older and wiser it is. However, some scholars believe that Japanese fox myths have its origins in Chinese mythology, others claim that Kitsune can be found in the 4th century tales as well. Many earlier stories about fox spirits can be found in the 11th century Chinese, Indian and Japanese narratives.
Kitsunetsuki (狐憑き, 狐付き) is a state of fox possession. According to some traditions, illiterate victims had ability to start reading during possession.
Nekomata
Nekomata (猫また) is a kind of a two –tailed cat being. These monsters can speak human language and walk on their hind legs. Nekomatas are violent and malicious towards their masters, killing many people. They can control corpses like puppets and have powerful influence on enslave humans.
Furaribi
Furaribi is a small flying creature in flames. It has bird body and dog-like face and appears late night at the riverbanks. According to the myth, it is created from the remains of the souls that couldn’t passed to the next life because they didn’t receive proper ceremonial. Therefore, Furaribi is the lost soul.
According to the legend: “In the late 16th century, Toyama was ruled by a samurai named Sassa Narimasa. Narimasa kept a very beautiful concubine named Sayuri in his household. Sayuri was not well liked by the female servants and other women in Sassa Narimasa’s household. They were jealous of her beauty and of Narimasa’s love for her. One day, these women conspired against Sayuri and started a rumor that she had been unfaithful to Narimasa with one of his own men. Narimasa flew in a fit of jealous rage, murdered Sayuri, then took her body down to the Jinzū river. He hung her corpse from a tree and proceeded to carve it into pieces with his sword. Then he captured Sayuri’s entire extended family — 18 people in all — and executed them in the same manner. Afterwards, their tortured souls aimlessly wandered the riverbanks every night as furaribi. It is said if you go down to the riverside and call out, “Sayuri, Sayuri!” late at night, the floating, severed head of a woman will appear, pulling and tearing at her hair in a vengeful fury. As for Sassa Narimasa, he was later defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Some have attributed his defeat by Hideyoshi to the vengeful curse of Sayuri’s ghost. “ (http://yokai.com/furaribi/)
References:
https://archive.org/details/bakemonozukushie00
https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Kitsune
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