Yesterday, Priest boys, today the Yokai are actual Priests. Such as this 岩魚坊主 (いわなぼうず), Iwana Bouzu or Char Priest. (Char is a fishy. Salvelinus leucomaenis)

Iwana bōzu are enormous iwana, a kind of river fish, that have turned into yōkai. They walk upright on two legs like humans and dress in Buddhist priest robes. They are found by mountain streams where people fish for iwana and other river fish.

 Iwana bōzu appear out of nowhere and ask people who are fishing to stop and go home. They usually approach people catching more fish than they need to survive rather than those who are just feeding their families. In particular, they target those who use extreme measures of fishing, such as poisoning the river with Japanese pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum), which causes fish to float to surface and makes them easy to catch. They lecture about refraining from needless killing, and taking life only when it is necessary to survive, and so on. Because they dress and speak in a manner that resembles a Buddhist priest, they are usually not immediately recognized as yōkai. It is only until later, after departing, that something seems off or strange and you realize that the person you thought was a priest was in fact a yōkai.

                                                 

non sequiter: Hey, we had a pretty cool Hunters Moon tonight!

A really lazy Junji Ito entry today. A Top 15 list of his strongest characters. (It's by Anime Priest, so it's part of today's theme.)

It would take up a lot of my time to dig up some of my Preacher comics. Such as these.

 

 

So instead, here is a picture of one of Hellboy.

 

 

I've been averaging 3-4 weddings a month lately. Good for the pocketbook. This was my garb at one of them.

Finally, how about a Gatcha? Not sure who it is, but it could be a priest, I reckon.

More stuff tomorrow...

Priest Boy Yokai!

My computer has been down for a few days, so I have some catching up to do.

What is it with Yokai resembling Priest Boys? We previously had Sendai's very own Priest Boy, Chouchin Kouzou, a lad who just stares you down. Today, we have 一つ目小僧 (ひとつめこぞう) or Hitotsume Kouzou who is another Priest Boy, though Cyclopean in appearance.

Other than the One Eye and long tongue, they're fairly harmless, merely choosing to startle people and occasionally lick them.

"In an account from Fukushima Prefecture, a young lady was walking the street at night. A little boy approached her from behind and asked “Ma’am, would you like some money.” She laughed and sweetly replied yes, and turned to face the boy. He was a hitotsume kozō. Instead of bearing riches and he was grinning, staring so intensely at her with his single eye that she fainted in shock on the spot."
 

The next Kouzou (Priest Boy) is 豆腐小僧 (とうふこぞう), little Tofu Boy. 

"Tōfu kozō are timid and weak yokai, and are not known to be aggressive towards humans. On rare occasions, a tōfu kozō may follow a human home on a rainy night, but for the most part they shy away from any confrontation."

雨降小僧 (あめふりこぞう) Rainfall Priest Boy. Unsurprisingly, he appears when it's raining. Despite their childish appearance, amefuri kozō are charged with the very important task of causing rainfall. Wherever they go, they cause clouds to form and rain to come down. In ancient China, amefuri kozō were thought to be the servants of the god of rainfall, who is known as Ushi in Japanese.

"Amefuri kozō are shy and rarely interact directly with people. However, they enjoy stealing people’s umbrellas and wearing them as hats. They then cause rain showers to fall upon their victims." 

 岸涯小僧 (がんぎこぞう) Riverbank Priest Boys are a little creepier than the above. "Gangi kozō are hairy, monkey-like water spirits which inhabit rivers. They live along the riverbanks, where they hunt fish. Their bodies are covered in hair, and the hair on their head resembles the the bobbed okappa hair style once popular among children in Japan. Their most notable features are their webbed hands and toes, and their long teeth which are sharp and jagged like files. They are close relatives of the much more well-known kappa." "Gangi kozō normally stay away from people, but occasionally encounter fishermen along the rivers they inhabit. When meeting a gangi kozō, fishermen often leave their largest, cheapest fish on the riverside as an offering."

Perhaps the most famous and silly-looking one is 唐傘小僧 (からかさこぞう), Karakasa Kouzou. Paper Umbrella Priest Boy, doesn't really resemble a boy, rather a worn out umbrella.

 Appearance: These silly looking yōkai are transformations of Chinese-style oiled-paper umbrellas. They have a single large eye, a long, protruding tongue, and either one or two legs upon which they hop around wildly.

Behavior: Karakasa kozō are not particularly fearsome as far as yōkai go. Their favorite method of surprising humans is to sneak up on them and deliver a large, oily lick with their enormous tongues—which may be traumatic even though it isn’t dangerous. Caution is advised, however. There are other umbrella tsukumogami which are dangerous to humans, and care should be taken not to confuse them with this more playful spirit.

I didn't bother linking to them all, click the top link and use the Yokai Finder yourself.

I'm going to return to Junji Ito's collection of Horror, #10, Unendurable Labyrinth. It has to do with Monks, being stared at (Chouchin Kouzou and Hitotsume Kouzou), and bullies (Tofu Kouzou). Here is a preview where the author talks about the tale. I learned a new word: Scopophobia, the fear of being stared at.

 

Speaking of kids (albeit, really old kids), I'm going to share some pics of Spudkins, Sweet Potatoes that my students carved. I'm quite pleased with the result and no one sliced open their hand nor burned the place down.

There's a few more pics, but my temperamental PC is not showing me them right now. 

I only have one of the above Gatcha, though I think it's the best one.

 The Forever People are a Jack Kirby creation, and since I don't have any of the Newsboy Legion on hand, these are the closest to kids I'm gonna get.

You may be able to find some kiddie crafts at The Paper Layer.

I'm still working out the bugs in my new computer so please be patient with me.

Spudkins!

I've been neglecting Junji Ito of late, so I took 90 minutes and watched Uzumaki (Spiral), the movie from 2000, not the recent anime. It was suitably creepy with some interesting effects from the manga interpreted in live action, no easy task.

If you have nothing better to do, give it a look.

Did you watch it? This guy has an interesting take on the film.

Okay, enough Junji for today. Moving on to my daily Yokai. We get the Baku, which is chimeric creature using a lot of spare parts from other creatures. The baku is a strange, holy beast that has the body of a bear, the head of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of an ox, and the legs of a tiger. Despite their monstrous appearance, baku are revered as powerful forces of good and as one of the holy protectors of mankind.

Nice to see a benevolent guardian spirit for a change.

They feed on the dreams of humans—specifically bad dreams. Evil spirits and yōkai fear baku and flee from baku-inhabited areas. Because of this, health and good luck follow baku wherever they go. 

Dream-Catcher, anyone?

Legend has it that when the world was new and the gods were making the animals, the baku was put together from the leftover bits and pieces at the end of creation. That explains its bizarre appearance, and why it is considered a favorite of the gods.

You can see why the Tapir has been named after this Yokai. There are similarities.

I discovered something today. A raw Sweet Potato is very tough to carve. 

I did my best and though I've never seen the show, I thought I'd attempt a Mr. Potato Head of a different kind. Enter: Frylock!

The magic marker goatee didn't turn out so well.

Oh wait, that's how I can add the fries.

I can't figure out how to share the video. I'll take another later after I solve the beard problem.

I bought a bag of a half dozen spuds for my students to try their hands at carving. I think I'll nuke them for a few minutes first to soften them up.

No Gatcha today. I'll dig one up from the archives. Groot has veggie roots, doesn't he?

I tried twice more and got duplicates of the above.

I've also neglected my comics collection. Let's see if I have anything appropriate.

She's the poster child for Flower Power!

You find a little magic over at The Manhole Cover or be sure to try any of the other bloggers participating in the Countdown...

I have another wedding early tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me.

Doh a Deer, a Really Big Deer!

Today, we drove out along the perimeter of the Oshika Peninsula. 

Though it may look like one, it is in fact a Peninsula and not a Penisula! 

More specifically we went to Oginohama on the Oshika Peninsula, facing Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea.

Our destination was wrapped in mystery by my driver and I was not disappointed by the result. That's one heck of a big deer!

"O" at the beginning of a word usually means "BIG" and "shika" means "deer". The story goes that some enterprising lads took a stuffed toy of a deer and used a 3D Printer to make this Big Deer! Oh dear!

Here are some pics of the view from the shore.

And the shore itself, lots and lots of shells!

A few tall Hinoki Cypress.

After that, we drove to Oshika Whale Land in nearby Ayukawa Port. By some fluke, we found it.

 

First a little building with a few displays of interest.

Oh cool, an imori (fire belly newt)

Then the next large building with lots of whale bones on display. 

Hey cool. It's the second largest sperm whale on display in Japan. (Wanna see the largest? I've seen it, it's on display here.)

A dolphin!

A poster for a 1957 Ken Takakura movie called "The Man Who Fights With a Whale".

This will be shown at the next Whale Festival at which this float is carried along the street.

oops, I should have cropped this.

The museum attendant was very helpful and chatty. (And cute!)

She even tolerated me when I held this baleen denture from a Minke whale and exclaimed, "I'm Trump!"

I bought a sticker and tried my luck at a home-made Gatcha, (as opposed to Made in China.)

I scored a Grey Whale skull.

Next we went aboard a whaling ship. 

Avast ye mateys!

The view from the bow.

I took a harpoon to the belly!

Dropped into a gift shop. 

I didn't buy any canned whale or eel. ( When I snapped the photos, the clerk seemed concerned. "Are these guys going to go on a rampage complaining about Japan's whaling policy?") We didn't.

I bought a cider.

A few more cool photos and we were outta there.

We took the Cobalt Line over a mountain and snapped a few more shots of the ocean from way up high.

While driving along here, we actually espied a deer alongside the road!

Ya know how the Japanese pride themselves on their cleanliness. Well not always...

Alas, we didn't have any garbage bags with us.

Once in Ishinomaki, the sun was setting and I tried to get a few shots of the peach-coloured sky.

All in all, a very nice day. BUT now I'm too tired to write a Halloween entry for the Countdown!

I'll double up tomorrow.