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A binbōgami (貧乏神, lit. "kami of poverty") is a kami or god who inhabits a human being or their house to bring misery and poverty.^{[citation needed]} Several Japanese folklores, essays, and rakugos refer to it.^[1] Concerning binbōgami's preference of baked miso, in Senba, Osaka, (ja:船場 (大阪市)) the following story is told:

There used to be an event till about 1877 to send binbōgami away: At the end of each month, merchants in Senba made baked and plate-shaped miso, then a bantō (番頭, head clerk), with the plate-shaped miso in his hands, walked around till the air was filled with its appetizing smell. After a while, he bent the plate-shaped miso closed. The miso's smell makes binbōgamis come out of the houses they inhabit and traps them in it. The bantō dumps the miso into a river and washes the smell away before returning. According to poet Mitsuyuki Nakamura, binbōgami has an uchiwa to draw in and enjoy miso's smell.^[2]

Description[edit]

Generally, a binbōgami appears as a skinny, dirty old man, who wields both an uchiwa and a kendama in his hands and wears one broken geta on his foot.^{[citation needed]}

Toen Shōsetsu (兎園小説), the mystery stories written by Kyokutei Bakin and others includes a story of kyūki (窮鬼):

In 1821, there was a bushi house with ever-present misery. One day, the man who served the house went to Sōka and came across a bonze. The man asked him where he came from. The bonze replied he came from the man's house. The man said that he had never seen the bonze before. "I'm binbōgami," the bonze answered, "and that's why so many people in the house caught an illness. That house has enough misery, so I shall go to another house. Your master will have better luck hereafter" and the bonze disappeared. Just as the bonze said, people in the house experienced better luck gradually.^[3]

Being a kami, a binbōgami cannot be killed.^{[citation needed]} A story in Niigata Prefecture describes how:

If you light an irori on an ōmisoka, irori's heat kicks binbōgami out and invites fukunokami (福の神, the kami of good luck) who likes the warmth of irori. There are many other superstitions which connect binbōgami with irori, including that of Tsushima, Ehime Prefecture: If an irori is lit too repeatedly, binbōgami appears.^[1]

Tankai (譚海), an essay collection by Souan Tsumura, includes a story about a binbōgami:

During a nap, a man dreams of a ragged old man entering the room. Thereafter, everything the man did went wrong. Four years later, in another dream, the old man appears again. The old man says that he will leave the house and tells the man how to send a binbōgami away: Make some baked rice and baked miso, and place them on an oshiki (wooden board, with four bent edges to serve as a tray), and take it through the back door and dump them into the river. The old man also reveals how to avoid binbōgami thereafter: Not to make any baked miso, which is preferred by binbōgami, and to never eat any raw miso, which makes poverty too severe to light a fire to bake miso. The man did as he was told, and he never again experienced poverty.^[4]

It is also said that hospitality of the inhabited people may turn binbōgami into fukunokami. Ihara Saikaku's Nippon Eidaigura (日本永代蔵) includes the story (Inoru shirushi no kami no oshiki 祈る印の神の折敷 lit. oshiki as a praying sign) which tells

About the man who deified a binbōgami. At the night of Jinjitsu (January 7 in the former Japanese calendar), a binbōgami appeared at the man's bedside and thanked him, "I had a prepared dinner on a tray for the first time," and made the man a millionaire in return. And it is also said that a poor hatamoto (middle-class bushi), who thought binbōgami had brought him security as well as poverty, put sake and rice out to pray to binbōgami for a little bit of luck. And then, he received a little bit of luck. This binbōgami is now enshrined beside Kitano Shrine, in Bunkyō ward, Tokyo. If you pray at the small shrine to welcome binbōgami temporarily, and send him away 21 days later, it is said, you can avoid binbōgami thereafter.^[5]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Kenji Murakami (2000). 妖怪事典. The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. pp. 292–293. ISBN 978-4-09-404702-8.
^ Chiba, Mikio (1991). 妖怪お化け雑学事典. Kodansha. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-4-06-205172-9.
^ [Hanabusa, Takanori (1997). 実録・大江戸奇怪草子忘れられた神々. Sango-kan. pp. 271–273頁. ISBN 978-4-88320-119-8.
^ 講談社コミッククリエイト (2008). 日本妖怪大百科. KODANSHA Official File Magazine. Vol. 04. kodansha. p. 12. ISBN 978-4-06-370039-8.
^ Murakami, Kenji (2008). 日本妖怪散歩. Kadokawa Bunko. Kadokawa Shoten. p. 33. ISBN 978-4-04-391001-4.

[youkaijiten-1] Kenji Murakami (2000). 妖怪事典. The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. pp. 292–293. ISBN 978-4-09-404702-8.

[2] Chiba, Mikio (1991). 妖怪お化け雑学事典. Kodansha. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-4-06-205172-9.

[3] [Hanabusa, Takanori (1997). 実録・大江戸奇怪草子忘れられた神々. Sango-kan. pp. 271–273頁. ISBN 978-4-88320-119-8.

[4] 講談社コミッククリエイト (2008). 日本妖怪大百科. KODANSHA Official File Magazine. Vol. 04. kodansha. p. 12. ISBN 978-4-06-370039-8.

[5] Murakami, Kenji (2008). 日本妖怪散歩. Kadokawa Bunko. Kadokawa Shoten. p. 33. ISBN 978-4-04-391001-4.

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+{{Short description|One of several Japanese poverty "gods" or "spirits" (kami)}}
-{{copyedit|date=February 2009}}
+{{for|the manga|Binbō-gami ga!}}
-A {{nihongo|'''binbōgami'''|貧乏神||lit. "kami of poverty"}} is a [[kami]] who inhabits a human or his house to bring misery and poverty. Several Japanese [[folklore]]s, [[essay]]s, and [[rakugo]]s refer to it.<ref name="youkaijiten">{{Cite book|author=[[Kenji Murakami]]|title=妖怪事典|year=2000|publisher=[[The Mainichi Newspapers Co.,Ltd.]]|isbn=978-4-09-404702-8|pages=292-293}}</ref>
+[[File:Binbougami jinja Kameido.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Binbōgami, jinja, [[Koto, Tokyo|Kōtō, Tokyo]], Japan]]
+A {{Nihongo|'''binbōgami'''|貧乏神||lit. "kami of poverty"}} is a [[kami]] or god who inhabits a human being or their house to bring misery and poverty.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} Several Japanese [[folklore]]s, [[essay]]s, and [[rakugo]]s refer to it.<ref name="youkaijiten">{{Cite book|author=Kenji Murakami|author-link=Kenji Murakami|title=妖怪事典|year=2000|publisher=[[The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd.]]|isbn=978-4-09-404702-8|pages=292–293}}</ref> Concerning binbōgami's preference of baked [[miso]], in Senba, Osaka, ([[:ja:船場 (大阪市)]]) the following story is told:
+<blockquote>There used to be an event till about 1877 to send binbōgami away: At the end of each month, merchants in Senba made baked and plate-shaped miso, then a ''bantō'' (番頭, head clerk), with the plate-shaped miso in his hands, walked around till the air was filled with its appetizing smell. After a while, he bent the plate-shaped miso closed. The miso's smell makes binbōgamis come out of the houses they inhabit and traps them in it. The bantō dumps the miso into a river and washes the smell away before returning. According to poet Mitsuyuki Nakamura, binbōgami has an ''[[uchiwa]]'' to draw in and enjoy miso's smell.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chiba|first=Mikio|title=妖怪お化け雑学事典|year=1991|publisher=[[Kodansha]]|isbn=978-4-06-205172-9|pages=216–217}}</ref></blockquote>
-==Outline==
-Generally, binbōgami appears with a skinny, dirty old man's shape, with an [[uchiwa]] in his hand. Binbōgami likes lazy people.
+==Description==
-''Toen Shōsetsu''(兎園小説), mystery stories written by [[Kyokutei Bakin]] et al., includes a story of kyūki (窮鬼). In [[1821]], there was a bushi house with ever-present misery. Once, the man who served the house went to [[Sōka]] and came across a bonze. The man asked him where he came from. The bonze replied he came from the house where the man belonged. The man said that he had never seen the bonze before. "I'm binbōgami," the bonze answered, "and that's why so many people in the house caught illness. That house has got enough misery, so I shall go to another house. Your master will have better luck hereafter." and the bonze disappeared. Just as the bonze said, people in the house got better luck gradually.<ref>[{{Cite book||last=Hanabusa|first=Takanori|title=実録・大江戸奇怪草子 忘れられた神々|year=1997|publisher=[[Sango-kan]]|isbn=978-4-88320-119-8|pages=271-273頁}}</ref>
+Generally, a binbōgami appears as a skinny, dirty old man, who wields both an [[uchiwa]] and a [[kendama]] in his hands and wears one broken [[geta (footwear)|geta]] on his foot.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
+''Toen Shōsetsu'' (兎園小説), the mystery stories written by [[Kyokutei Bakin]] and others includes a story of [[kyūki]] (窮鬼):
-Being kami, nobody can kill binbōgami. But it is not impossible to avoid. Superstition in [[Niigata Prefecture]] says how: If you light [[irori]] on [[ōmisoka]], irori's heat kicks binbōgami out and invites hukunokami (福の神, the kami of good luck), who likes the warmth of irori. There are many other superstitions which connect binbōgami with irori, including that in [[Tsushima,_Ehime|Tsushima]], [[Ehime Prefecture]]: If an irori is lighted too repeatedly, binbōgami appears.<ref name="youkaijiten"/>
+<blockquote>In 1821, there was a bushi house with ever-present misery. One day, the man who served the house went to [[Sōka]] and came across a [[bhikkhu|bonze]]. The man asked him where he came from. The bonze replied he came from the man's house. The man said that he had never seen the bonze before. "I'm binbōgami," the bonze answered, "and that's why so many people in the house caught an illness. That house has enough misery, so I shall go to another house. Your master will have better luck hereafter" and the bonze disappeared. Just as the bonze said, people in the house experienced better luck gradually.<ref>[{{Cite book|last=Hanabusa|first=Takanori|title=実録・大江戸奇怪草子 忘れられた神々|year=1997|publisher=[[Sango-kan]]|isbn=978-4-88320-119-8|pages=271–273頁}}</ref></blockquote>
-Tankai(譚海), an essay collection by Souan Tsumura, includes a story about binbōgami: During a nap, a man dreamed of a ragged old man coming inside the room. Thereafter, everything the man did went the wrong way. Four years later, in a dream, the old man appeared again. The old man said that he was going to leave the house and told the man how to send a binbōgami away: Make some baked rice and baked miso, and place them on oshiki (wooden board, with four bent edges to serve as a tray), and take them through the back door and dump them into the river. And the old man also told how to avoid binbōgami thereafter: Not to make any baked miso, which is preferred by binbōgami, and never to eat any raw miso, which makes poverty too severe to light any fire to bake miso. The man did as he had been told, and poverty was never brought.<ref>{{Cite book|author=講談社コミッククリエイト|title=日本妖怪大百科|year=2008|publisher=[[kodansha]]|series=KODANSHA Official File Magazine|volume=VOL.04|isbn=978-4-06-370039-8|pages=12}}</ref>
+Being a [[kami]], a binbōgami cannot be killed.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} A story in [[Niigata Prefecture]] describes how:
-Concering binbōgami's preference of baked miso,in Funaba, Osaka, there used to be an event to send binbōgami away till circa 1877: In the end of each month, merchants in Funaba made baked and plate-shaped miso, then a bantō (番頭, head clark), with the plate-shaped miso in his hands, walked around till the air was filled with its appetizing smell. After a while, he bent plate-shaped miso closed. The miso's smell makes binbōgamis come out of inhabited houses and traps them in it. Bantō dumps miso into a river and washes smell away before getting back. According to a poet Mitsuyuki Nakamura, binbōgami has uchiwa to draw and enjoy miso's smell.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chiba|first=Mikio|title=妖怪お化け雑学事典|year=1991|publisher=[[Kodansha]]|isbn=978-4-06-205172-9|pages=216-217}}</ref>
+<blockquote>If you light an [[irori]] on an [[ōmisoka]], irori's heat kicks binbōgami out and invites fukunokami (福の神, the kami of good luck) who likes the warmth of irori. There are many other superstitions which connect binbōgami with irori, including that of [[Tsushima, Ehime|Tsushima]], [[Ehime Prefecture]]: If an irori is lit too repeatedly, binbōgami appears.<ref name="youkaijiten"/></blockquote>
-It is also said that hospitality of the inhabited people may turn binbōgami into fukunokami. [[Ihara Saikaku]]'s ''Nippon Eidaigura'' (日本永代蔵) includes the story (''Inoru shirushi no kami no oshiki'' 祈る印の神の折敷 lit.oshiki as a praying sign) which tells about the man who deified a binbōgami. At the night of Jinjitsu (January 7th in the Japanese former calendar), a binbōgami appeard at the man's bedside and thanked him, "I had a prepared dinner with tray for the first time", and made the man millionaire in return. And it is also said that a poor hatamoto (middle-class bushi), who thought binbōgami had brought him security as well as poverty, put [[sake]] and rice to pray binbōgami for a litte bit of luck. And then, he got a little bit of luck. This binbōgami is now enshrined in a small shrine beside Kitano Shrine, in [[Bunkyō, Tokyo|Bunkyō ward, Tokyo]]. If you pray the small shrine to welcome binbōgami temporarily, and send him away 21 days later, it is said, you can avoid binbōgami thereafter.<ref>{{Cite book|和書|last=Murakami|first=Kenji|title=日本妖怪散歩|year=2008|publisher=[[Kadokawa Shoten]]|series=[[Kadokawa Bunko]]|isbn=978-4-04-391001-4|pages=33頁}}</ref>。
+''Tankai'' (譚海), an essay collection by Souan Tsumura, includes a story about a binbōgami:
-==References ==
-{{reflist}}
+<blockquote>During a nap, a man dreams of a ragged old man entering the room. Thereafter, everything the man did went wrong. Four years later, in another dream, the old man appears again. The old man says that he will leave the house and tells the man how to send a binbōgami away: Make some baked rice and baked miso, and place them on an ''oshiki'' (wooden board, with four bent edges to serve as a tray), and take it through the back door and dump them into the river. The old man also reveals how to avoid binbōgami thereafter: Not to make any baked miso, which is preferred by binbōgami, and to never eat any raw miso, which makes poverty too severe to light a fire to bake miso. The man did as he was told, and he never again experienced poverty.<ref>{{Cite book|author=講談社コミッククリエイト|title=日本妖怪大百科|year=2008|publisher=[[kodansha]]|series=KODANSHA Official File Magazine|volume=04|isbn=978-4-06-370039-8|pages=12}}</ref></blockquote>
+It is also said that hospitality of the inhabited people may turn binbōgami into fukunokami. [[Ihara Saikaku]]'s ''Nippon Eidaigura'' (日本永代蔵) includes the story (''Inoru shirushi no kami no oshiki'' 祈る印の神の折敷 lit. oshiki as a praying sign) which tells
+:About the man who deified a binbōgami. At the night of Jinjitsu (January 7 in the former Japanese calendar), a binbōgami appeared at the man's bedside and thanked him, "I had a prepared dinner on a tray for the first time," and made the man a millionaire in return. And it is also said that a poor ''hatamoto'' (middle-class bushi), who thought binbōgami had brought him security as well as poverty, put [[sake]] and rice out to pray to binbōgami for a little bit of luck. And then, he received a little bit of luck. This binbōgami is now enshrined beside Kitano Shrine, in [[Bunkyō, Tokyo|Bunkyō ward, Tokyo]]. If you pray at the small shrine to welcome binbōgami temporarily, and send him away 21 days later, it is said, you can avoid binbōgami thereafter.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murakami|first=Kenji|title=日本妖怪散歩|year=2008|publisher=[[Kadokawa Shoten]]|series=[[Kadokawa Bunko]]|isbn=978-4-04-391001-4|page=33}}</ref>
 ==See also==
+*''[[Momotaro Densetsu|Momotarō Densetsu]]'' and ''[[Momotaro Dentetsu|Momotarō Dentetsu]]'' by [[Hudson Soft]]
-*[[Japanese mythology in popular culture]]
 *[[List of legendary creatures from Japan]]
+==References ==
+{{Reflist}}
+{{Japanese folklore long}}
 {{jmyth navbox long}}
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Binbogami}}
-[[Category:Japanese legendary creatures]]
+[[Category:Abundance gods]]
 [[Category:Fortune gods]]
+[[Category:Japanese legendary creatures]]
-[[ja:貧乏神]]
+[[Category:Japanese gods]]

v t e Japanese folklore
Folktales	Awa Tanuki Gassen Bunbuku Chagama Hachikazuki Hakuzōsu Hanasaka Jiisan Hyakki Yagyō Issun-bōshi Kachi-kachi Yama Kasa Jizō Kintarō Kobutori Jiisan Kurozuka Momotarō Nezumi no Sumō Oto-hime Saru Kani Gassen Shita-kiri Suzume Taketori Monogatari Tamamo-no-Mae Tawara Tōda Tsuru no Ongaeshi Urashima Tarō Uriko-hime Yamata no Orochi Yotsuya Kaidan
Texts	Konjaku Monogatarishū Otogi-zōshi Uji Shūi Monogatari
Legendary creatures	Abura-akago Abura-sumashi Aka Manto Akaname Akashita Akateko Akuma Amabie Aoandon Amanojaku Amazake-babaa Amefurikozō Ameonna Amikiri Aobōzu Aonyōbō Aosaginohi Ashinagatenaga Ayakashi Azukiarai Bake-kujira Baku Basan Binbōgami Chimimōryō Daidarabotchi Dodomeki Dorotabō [ja] Dragon Enenra Funayūrei Furaribi Fūri Futakuchi-onna Gagoze Gashadokuro Goryō Hanako-san Harionago Hibagon Hiderigami Hinezumi [ja] Hito-gitsune Hitotsume-kozō Hitotsume-nyūdō Hone-onna Hyōsube Ikiryō Ikuchi Inugami Ishinagenjo Isonade Janjanbi Jinmenju Jorōgumo Jubokko Kaibyō Bakeneko Nekomata Kamaitachi Kamikiri Kappa Kasa-obake Kasha Kawauso Keukegen Kijimuna Kinoko Kirin Kitsune Hakuzōsu Kitsunebi Kodama Komainu Konaki-jiji Korpokkur Koromodako Kotobuki Kuchisake-onna Kuda-gitsune Kudan Kyubi Mazoku Mikaribaba Mikoshi-nyūdō Miage-nyūdō Misaki Mizuchi Mokumokuren Momiji Mononoke Mōryō Mujina Namahage Namazu Ningyo Noderabō Noppera-bō Nue Nuppeppō Nurarihyon Nure-onna Nurikabe Nyūdō-bōzu Obake Oboroguruma Oiwa Okiku Okubi Ōmukade Oni Ibaraki-dōji Kijo/Onibaba Kidōmaru Rashōmon no oni Shuten-dōji Onibi Onikuma Onryō Ōnyūdō Osaki Otoroshi Ouni Raijū Rokurokubi Samebito Sankai Satori Sazae-oni Shachihoko Shidaidaka Shikigami Shinigami Shiranui Shirime Shiryō Shōjō Shōkera Shussebora [ja] Sōjōbō Sunekosuri Takaonna Tanuki Danzaburou-danuki Inugami Gyōbu Shibaemon-tanuki Yashima no Hage-tanuki Ten Tengu Tennin Tenome Tesso Tōfu-kozō Tsuchigumo Tsuchinoko Tsukumogami Abumi-guchi Bakezōri Biwa-bokuboku Boroboroton Chōchin'obake Ittan-momen Kasa-obake Koto-furunushi Menreiki Ungaikyō Tsurara-onna Tsurubebi Tsurube-otoshi Ubagabi Ubume Umibōzu Umi zatō Ushi-oni Uwan Waira Wanyūdō Yamabiko Yamajijii Yama-uba Yamawaro Yanari Yobuko Yōkai Yōsei Yosuzume Yuki-onna Yume no seirei Yūrei Zashiki-warashi
Folklorists	Kunio Yanagita Keigo Seki Lafcadio Hearn Shigeru Mizuki Inoue Enryō

v t e Japanese mythology
Mythic texts	Kojiki Nihon Shoki Fudoki Kujiki Kogo Shūi Hotsuma Tsutae Nihon Ryōiki Konjaku Monogatarishū Shintōshū Butsuzōzui
Japanese creation myth	Kotoamatsukami (Hitorigami) Ame-no-Minakanushi Kamiyo (Kamiyonanayo) Kuniumi Kamiumi Izanami Izanagi Kagutsuchi Watatsumi
Takamagahara mythology	Amaterasu Susanoo Tsukuyomi Ame-no-Uzume
Izumo mythology	Yamata no Orochi Hare of Inaba Ōkuninushi Kuni-yuzuri Kotoshironushi Takeminakata
Hyūga mythology	Tenson kōrin Ninigi Konohanasakuya-hime Hoderi Hoori Toyotama-hime Ugayafukiaezu
Human age	Emperor Jimmu Tagishimimi Kesshi Hachidai
Mythological locations	Ashihara no Nakatsukuni Amano-Iwato Onogoro Island Ne-no-kuni Ryūgū-jō Sanzu River Takamagahara Tokoyo no kuni Yomi
Mythological weapons	Amenonuhoko Kusanagi no Tsurugi Totsuka-no-Tsurugi Ame-no-ohabari Futsu-no-mitama [ja]
Major Buddhist figures	Amida Nyorai Daruma Five Tathagatas
Seven Lucky Gods	Benzaiten Bishamonten Daikokuten Ebisu Fukurokuju Hotei Jurōjin Kisshōten
Legendary creatures	Dragon Kappa Kitsune Oni Shinshi Tengu Yōkai Yūrei
Other	Shinigami Ryukyuan religion Amamikyu Tenson dynasty Ainu mythology Kamuy Kamuy-huci Hasinaw-uk-kamuy
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Latest revision as of 01:14, 30 April 2024

Description[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]