Menreiki is attested in the 1781 compendium Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, where it is listed among many supernatural beings of the Edo-period yōkai encyclopedic tradition. Folkloric commentary connected the masks that compose Menreiki to ancient Gigaku masks associated in legend with Prince Shōtoku and the performer Hata no Kawakatsu; the entity is thereby culturally anchored to the world of early court performance and the material culture of Gigaku masks.
The classical attestation describes Menreiki as being composed of Gigaku masks (面, men) and associated spirit-energy (霊気, reiki) (Source 1). No detailed classical description of number, color, or precise arrangement of masks is recorded in the cited Edo-period entry. Modern media and character designs inspired by the motif commonly portray Menreiki-derived figures with multiple masks or wearing masks to express shifting faces or stored emotions (Sources 3, 5–7); these are contemporary creative representations rather than original folkloric descriptions.
The Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro entry records Menreiki's composition from Gigaku masks but does not enumerate specific powers or behaviors in the supplied materials (Sources 1, 4). Later popular-culture sources (games, manga, fan pages) portray Menreiki-inspired characters as having mask-related functions—storing or displaying emotions, mediating identity, or compelling others through mask rites—and invent event narratives in which masked participants are coerced into violence (Sources 3, 5–8). These attributes are modern fictional elaborations and are not attested as canonical abilities in the classical source.
Weaknesses
- otherNo classical weaknesses recorded
Wards
- otherNo documented traditional wards
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.
Community Record
- [1]Menreiki (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Menreiki article summarizing classical attestation and modern referenceswiki
- [2]Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: article on the 1781 compendium that lists Menreikiwiki
- [3]Hata no Kokoro (character notes / modern media). Modern manga/game-derived character page noting a 'menreiki youkai' who relies on masks to communicate emotionsother
- [4]Onmyoji Official Site - SP Glorious Takiyashahime arrives. Official game news and event material that includes modern narratives using the Menreiki motifother
- [5]Karma Duet | Onmyoji (event coverage). Fan event summary describing an Onmyoji event storyline involving mask-related coercion attributed to a Menreiki figureother
- [6]Kagome’s Song | Onmyoji (event/skin coverage). Fan coverage of an Onmyoji event and skin themed around Menreiki; represents modern creative use of the motifother
- [7]Touhou fan art / sprite resources (Hata no Kokoro imagery). Modern sprite art and character asset showing creative representations of a Menreiki-inspired characterother
- [8]Tales of Yokai Tier List: Best Characters in the Game. Modern game coverage listing Menreiki-derived characters in contemporary games; reflects adaptation rather than classical loreother