Variant local legends attribute the ubagabi's origin to specific human misdeeds committed by an old woman rather than to a single unified cosmology. In a Kawachi/Hiraoka account preserved in sources such as the Shokoku Rijin Dan and related anthologies, an old woman who stole oil from Hiraoka Shrine is said to have become, or caused, a mysterious flame. In a Tanba/Hozu River tradition, an old woman who murdered or abandoned children and later drowned in a flood is said to have been followed by a mysterious flame appearing near the river. These etiological accounts present the ubagabi as a localized cursed or punitive manifestation connected to particular transgressions in their respective narratives.
Commonly described as a ball of fire; one Shokoku Rijin Dan description specifies a length of one shaku (about 30 centimeters). Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō depicts the ubagabi as mysterious flames containing an old woman's face. Narratives also record brief variability: in one tale the flame struck a person's face, momentarily assumed the form of a chicken-like bird, and then returned to a ball of fire when it flew away.
Reports describe rapid, highly mobile movement (one account says it 'flies a length of about one ri in a mere instant') and harmful consequences of proximity: a tale asserts that if an ubagabi grazes around a person's shoulder, that person will die within three years. It may change form between a luminous ball and a brief avian shape. Across sources the ubagabi's appearances are linked causally to the human-origin stories in each local account.
Weaknesses
None recorded.
Wards
- mantraspeaking the phrase 'abura-sashi' (あぶらさし / 'oil-pourer')
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
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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]Ubagabi — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: Ubagabiwiki
- [2]Ubagabi — Wikidata. Wikidata: Q11447337other