Futsunushi is a deity in Japanese folklore, from Katori (Shimōsa, northern Chiba). Futsunushi is a high-ranking martial kami in Japanese Shinto tradition, chief deity of the Katori shrine tradition (Katori Jingū) and a heavenly warrior-emissary sent during the mythic kuni-yuzuri to assert celestial authority over the earthly realm. He is closely paired with Takemikazuchi, associated with swords and weapons, and serves as a tutelary/ancestral deity for certain clans such as the Mononobe.
In classical texts (notably the Nihon Shoki and regional Fudoki traditions) Futsunushi is a heavenly martial emissary dispatched from Takamagahara during the kuni-yuzuri (the transfer of the land) to demand that the earthly ruler Ōnamuchi/Ōkuninushi relinquish authority. Variant accounts give differing genealogies and local origin motifs (multiple classical sources and local fudoki present alternative parentage and names). After pacifying resistance he is said, in a Hitachi Fudoki variant, to have left his weapons on earth and mounted a white cloud to return to heaven. The deity functions as the primary tutelary kami of Katori Jingū and as an ancestral protector for clans such as the Mononobe (later associated in patronage networks with powerful lineages like the Fujiwara).
Classical sources emphasize Futsunushi's identity as a stalwart warrior (masurao) rather than providing a detailed anthropomorphic iconography. Narratives record martial accoutrements and a motif of leaving weapons and gear on earth; a Hitachi Fudoki passage describes him mounting a white cloud when returning to heaven. No consistent physical description (clothing, face, animal form) is given in the provided texts.
Texts portray Futsunushi as a divine warrior and enforcer: sent by the heavenly kami to demand submission of earthly deities, to pacify rebels, and to slay those who refuse submission (the Nihon Shoki recounts he and Takemikazuchi demanded Ōnamuchi yield the land and 'proceeded to slay all those who refused'). He is strongly associated with swords and weapons (accounts and etymological discussion link his name and cult to martial implements). Scholarly commentary (Aston 1905) offers interpretive hypotheses that he may once have had thunder or fire aspects, but such attributes are presented as scholarly inference rather than explicit primary-text statements in the supplied sources.
5 Ronin
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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)
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.
Community Record
- [1]Futsunushi - Wikipedia. Wikipedia. "Futsunushi"wiki
- [2]Wikidata: Futsunushi. Wikidata entry Q1107286wiki
- [3]Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston (1905), pages 165-166. Aston, William G. (1905). Shinto, the Way of the Gods. (pp.165-166).academic
- [4]Takemikazuchi - Wikipedia (for related-pair context). Wikipedia. "Takemikazuchi" (used to document close association in myth)wiki
- [5]Hitachi Fudoki / Nihon Shoki summaries (as cited in research notes). Summaries of Nihon Shoki and Hitachi Fudoki narratives as compiled in secondary sources (see Wikipedia entry and Aston commentary)other