Abura-akago
The Abura-akago ( Japanese 油 赤子 ; to dt. "Oil Baby") is a fictional being of the Japanese folk belief . He is a yōkai and is usually described as scary but harmless to humans.
description
The Abura-Akago to the night in the form of a Hitodama (a kind of ghost flame or wisp ) in inhabited houses and temples invade and take there the shape of a baby or small child. Like the rokurokubi , he should then look for oil lamps and then drink them up or lick them with his long tongue. Then he steals the vessels and turns back into a Hitodama. Other traditions tell of Akago meeting other Akago and then having night parties in houses .
folklore
Various anecdotes and legends have come down to us about the Abura-akago . From the Shiga prefecture comes the legend that Akago is the ghost of a deceased oil trader who had repeatedly stolen from the local Jizo temple and was therefore not allowed to enter the afterlife . Then the cursed spirit of the thief turned into a will-o'-the-wisp.
A similar legend is told in the former province of Ōmi : there the Abura-akago is said to wander through the streets at night in the form of a Hitodama and suck the oil from the lamps. The local residents believe that the Abura-akago is the rebirth of an evil oil trader who repeatedly stole oil from street and courtyard lamps during his lifetime. Even after his death, he cannot (or does not want to) stop stealing. Therefore he is condemned to wander the streets and houses as a ghost forever and to drink lamp oil.
literature
- Richard Freeman: The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia: The AZ of Japanese Monsters . CFZ Press, Myrtle Cottage, Bideford 2010, ISBN 978-1-905723-54-6 .
- Michaela Haustein: Mythologies of the World: Volume 1: Japan, Ainu, Korea . epubli-holtzbrinck, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 3-84421-407-0 .
- Toriyama Sekien: 今昔 画 図 続 百 鬼 . Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo 2005, ISBN 4-04-405101-1 .