The pictorial sources that record furaribi do not supply an explicit prose origin. An interpretive theory noted in scholarship and the source summary proposes that some furaribi represent incarnations of fire formed from deceased persons who were not given memorial rites and thus wandered as unsettled spirits, gradually taking on the fiery forms depicted in the scrolls. Separately, a Toyama (Isobe, Jinzū River basin) local legend links the nightly appearance of ghost-lights—called buraribi or Sayuri-bi—to the aftermath of an execution and a deathbed curse, producing a locally situated haunting tied to a named individual (Sayuri). The memorial-neglect origin is presented in the sources as theory rather than an established, uniform origin story.
In classical yōkai picture-scrolls (Hyakkai Zukan, Bakemonozukushi) furaribi are depicted as birds enveloped in flame with a dog-like face; Sekien Toriyama's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō includes an example rendered as a bird wrapped in fire whose facial rendering an observer has compared to Garuda (this comparison is attributed to the source depiction). The Toyama local tale describes atmospheric ghost-lights without detailing a bird-form and reports that, in that story, calling the light by the name 'Sayuri' causes the apparition of a severed woman's head with disheveled hair—a specific local manifestation distinct from the pictorial bird-imagery.
The pictorial tradition presents furaribi as visible fiery apparitions—bird-formed flames that manifest in the human-visible world. The scholarly interpretation tying some forms to deceased persons not given memorials suggests a behavioral role as lingering, restless manifestations of the unmemorialized dead, though this is explicitly framed as theory in the sources. In the Toyama tale, the related nightly ghost-lights respond to vocal invocation: calling 'Sayuri, Sayuri' summons the apparition of a severed woman's head (the local Sayuri), an ability reported only for that specific regional story rather than for all pictorial furaribi.
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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)
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Acala
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Agaru
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Ajisukitakahikone
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Aka Manto
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Akaname
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Akashaguma
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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]Furaribi — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. "Furaribi." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furaribiwiki