The Basan is attested in Edo-period illustrated catalogs of strange creatures rather than in a creation myth. It first appears in Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) and is later recorded in Takehara Shunsen’s Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841). These compendia present the Basan as part of a taxonomy of uncanny beings tied to particular landscapes and nocturnal phenomena; the sources do not offer a cosmogonic origin or a mythic birth story for the creature.
Accounts and illustrations describe the Basan as a fowl-like bird approximately the size of a turkey or large chicken, often shown with a bright red cockscomb and plumage rendered like tongues of flame. Different depictions vary in color details—some illustrations show blue hackles or greenish sickle feathers—but the consistent features are its chicken-like form and a luminous breath emitted from its mouth. The breath is depicted as fire-like in appearance but is described as a cold glow that does not ignite materials.
The Basan emits a visible, glowing breath likened to dragon's fire or 'ghost-fire' that gives off no heat and does not burn combustible materials. It feeds on charred wood and embers, venturing into remote villages at night to consume remaining bonfires or charcoal. Its wing-flapping produces an eerie rustling sound; sources report that if a human hears this sound and looks outside, the bird's form will suddenly vanish. The provided materials do not record aggressive harm to people or possessions.
Apsara
Celestial dancers and water nymphs of Hindu cosmology — beautiful semi-divine beings who dance at the court of Indra and, by his command, descend to earth to distract sages from excessive asceticism.
Banshee
A female spirit of Irish and Scottish folklore whose wail heralds an impending death in a family of Gaelic descent. Not a cause of death — a witness to it.
Will-o'-the-wisp
An atmospheric 'ghost light' — a small, mobile, lamp-like light seen at night over marshes, bogs, wet ground, or graveyards. In many cultures the phenomenon is interpreted as a supernatural being or manifestation (wandering nature-spirit, soul of the dead, transformed witch, or treasure-indicator); modern science offers chemiluminescent explanations for some occurrences.
5 Ronin
5 Ronin is a 2011 Marvel Comics five-issue limited series that reimagines five Marvel superhero archetypes as rōnin (masterless samurai) in a fictionalized post‑Sekigahara feudal Japan. The work places Wolverine, Hulk, Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool analogues into period roles to explore displacement, revenge, and identity in an era of political upheaval.
Abumi-guchi
A Japanese yōkai classed as a tsukumogami: an animated stirrup (abumi) depicted in Sekien Toriyama's Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. Traditional accounts say it is formed from a stirrup that belonged to a soldier who fell in battle and that it waits where the stirrup lies for its dead owner to return.
Abura-akago
An Edo-period yōkai depicted as an oil‑licking infant or a ball of flame. First recorded in illustrated compendia (notably Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki), the Abura-akago is tied to tales of oil‑stealing fires and functions in part as an etiological warning about wasting or stealing oil.
Abura-sumashi
A yōkai spirit from the Amakusa region of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, said to inhabit mountain passes. Traditionally explained as the ghost of a person who stole oil, it appears to surprise travelers and is represented in modern media with a straw-coat body and a potato- or stone-like head.
Aburabō / Abura-bōzu / Aosaginohi (traditions)
Two distinct Japanese traditions appear under related flame imagery: Aosaginohi/Aosagibi is presented as a will-o'-the-wisp type luminous night phenomenon interpreted as reflections from herons; aburabōzu (abura bōzu, "oil monk") appears in a separate anecdote as a reported fire-breathing apparition in a 12th-century Yasaka Shrine tale. The sources treat them as separate portrayals rather than a single unified being.
Acala
Acala (Sanskrit: अचल, 'The Immovable') is a wrathful protective deity (dharmapala) in Vajrayāna and East Asian esoteric Buddhism, classed among the Wisdom Kings (Vidyārāja). He functions as a ritual focus for visualization and mantra practice intended to remove obstacles and bind or destroy hostile forces.
Agaru
Agaru (attested historically as Agarum) appears in the supplied sources as a Bronze Age Near Eastern toponym—often identified with Failaka Island—and as a modern personal or media name. The provided material contains no evidence that Agaru is a supernatural being in any traditional cosmology.
Ajisukitakahikone
Ajisukitakahikone is a kami in Japanese mythic literature (Kojiki/Nihon Shoki). He appears in the transfer-of-rule cycle between heaven and earth, is described as a son of Ōkuninushi, associated with the Kamo cult (called Kamo no ōmikami in some modern museum/catalog entries), and features in narratives that explain landscape formation and meteorological genealogy.
Aka Manto
Aka Manto (赤マント, "Red Cloak") is a Japanese urban legend and schoolyard ghost-story about a masked, cloaked figure who appears in public or school toilet stalls and forces occupants to choose between colored toilet paper; each choice in the tale produces a violent supernatural consequence. The legend is part of modern popular folklore recorded in school contexts from the 1930s onward rather than a formal religious myth.
Akaname
Akaname is a Japanese yōkai associated with baths, bathtubs, toilets, and other places where scum and filth accumulate. Traditionally depicted as a child-like creature that licks grime, it functions in folklore as a cautionary figure tied to cleanliness; a few narrative variants cast it as dangerously predatory.
Akashaguma
Akashaguma is presented in the available sources as a child-like house guardian spirit in the Japanese yokai tradition, closely comparable to the regional zashiki-warashi. It is associated with domestic interiors (parlors or storage rooms) and with bringing prosperity to households where it dwells.
Akashita
Akashita (赤舌, lit. “red tongue”) is an Edo-period pictorial yōkai commonly represented as a hairy, clawed face emerging from dark clouds with a wide open mouth and a conspicuous red tongue. The figure appears in yōkai emaki and Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō; Sekien’s plate shows it atop a sluice, but the original pictorial tradition provides no explanatory caption. Later folklorists and popular writers (Shōwa and later) have variously interpreted the image as a punitive spirit linked to irrigation/floodgate justice or as a kidnapper in evening skies, though these narrative roles are post-hoc.
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- [1]Basan (legendary bird) - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Basan (legendary bird)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (Toriyama Sekien, 1776) / Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Takehara Shunsen, 1841) — summaries in modern sources. Summaries of Basan in Edo-period illustrated compendia (Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and Takehara Shunsen's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari) as cited in provided research notes.literary
- [3]Five Mythical Birds from Around the World – Under the influence!. Evans, 'Five Mythical Birds from Around the World', Under the influence! (blog), May 2021.other