October 27, 2022: Your Handy Guide to Weird Yokai!

Five more to keep you up at night…

Every so often, chickens will exact their revenge on the hypocritical monks who ate them, causing them to cough up chicken heads or transforming them into human-chicken hybrids known as Niwatori no so. Art by @matthewmeyerart

If the bell of your long-abandoned local temple inexplicably tolls at night, then your village may be playing host to a Noderabo, the disheveled spirit of a former monk who lost his way.

A young man mourning the passing of his former lover is shocked by her sudden, miraculous return. She visits every night, leaving him the next morning feeling exhausted. Unbeknownst to him, she is now a Hone Onna, a skeleton woman, slowly feeding off his life energy. Art by Nikulina-Helena

When a monk’s staff reaches a certain age, it may transform into a Nyoijizai, a yokai specializing in scratching those hard to reach itchy spots on your back.

The Hyakume is a yokai with myriad eyes that guards your local temple. Like my Japanese wife, it shuns direct sunlight. Instead, it patrols the grounds at night, occasionally sending out one of its eyeballs to literally keep an eye on suspicious characters.

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