Fujin
(Ryobu)
The
Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest
Shinto gods. He was present at the creation of the
world and when he first let the winds out of his bag,
they cleared the morning mists and filled the space
between heaven and earth so the sun shone. He is
portrayed as a terrifying dark demon wearing a
leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his
shoulders.
Hasu-Ko
In
Japanese mythology, a young girl who died of
love for her betrothed, whom she had never seen.
Her spirit 'stole' the body of her sister Kei for a year
so she and her fiancé could live as lovers. Kei
became ill 'like one dead'. At the end of the year
Hasu-Ko brought her lover to her ancestral home
and told her parents that she was content to die
definitively if they would marry her sister to him.
Since this was the only way to give her soul peace,
the parents agreed. When her spirit faded away, Kei
revived suddenly and was happy to marry her
sister's fiancé. They lived happily ever after.
Hasu-Ko means 'Lotus-Child'.
Hinokagutsuchi
The
Japanese god of fire.
Hisa-Me
The
Hisa-Me are female demons of death in the
Japanese underworld.
Hototogisu
The
Japanese cuckoo. The bird has a sad cry, which
is explained by the country people as the melancholy
longing of a dead soul to return to the land of her
loved ones.
Izanami
In
Japanese Shinto-mythology, a primordial goddess
and personification of the Earth and darkness.
Izanami ("the female who invites") is the wife and
sister of Izanagi. Together they created Onogoro,
the first island of the Japanese archipelago. She died
gaving birth to the fire god Kagutsuchi and since
then she rules over the underworld.
Her
husband went there to take her back with him,
but she refused. By sealing the entrance to the
underworld she tried to imprison him, but Izanagi
managed to escape. Furious, Izanami vowed to kill
one thousand of Izanagi's subjects a day, and
Izanagi vowed to create fifteen hundred new ones a
day.
Kamaitachi
A
Japanese monster that looks like a weasel,
although it moves so fast no one has ever gotten a
good look. They usually assault a victim as a team,
where the first knocks down the victim, the second
slashes him with its teeth, and the third heals the
wound. The word kama means "sickle" and itachi
means "weasel".
Kami-Musubi
A
Japanese goddess. She is the mother of the dwarf
god Sukuna-bikona.
Kaminari
The
Japanese Thunder Woman, also known as
"Heaven's Noise". She has been seen by some
people in the shape of a heavenly queen.
Kappa
In
Japanese Shinto-religion, they are water spirits
who pull little children into the water and drown
them, and attack and fight travelers. They also
attack animals, including horses. They cannot live for
long on the land, for they must always keep their
heads wet. They have long hair, the body of a
tortoise, scaly limbs, and an ape face. The Kappas
feed themselves with cucumbers and blood, and use
cucumbers to travel on them; these cucumbers fly
like dragonflies. Kappas are very intelligent and can
be propitiated by humans. They can be befriended
by wise men to whom they will teach the art of
setting bones. They may once have been wise
monkeys.
Kiji
A
bird (pheasant) which may be the soul of a
woman who has died.
Kijo
An
ogre living in the Japanese woods.
Kirin
The
Japanese unicorn, an animal-god who punishes
the wicked with its single horn. It protects the just
and grants them good luck. Seeing a kirin is
considered an omen of extreme good luck - if one is
a virtuous person.
Kishijoten
The
Japanese goddess of luck and of beauty. She is
the patroness of song and dance, protectress of the
geishas. She is the sister of the war god Bishamon.
Kiyo
A
beautiful waitress from Japanese legend. She
worked in a teahouse on the Hidaka riverbank. A
visiting priest fell in love with her but after a time he
overcame his passions and refrained from further
meetings. Kiyo became furious and sought revenge.
She went to the temple of Kompera to learn the art
of magic. After studying for some time she turned
herself into a dragon and flew to the monastery
where the priest lived. He saw her coming and hid
himself under the temple bell. With a great belch of
fire, the dragon melted the bell, thereby killing the
priest. Thus the priest was punished because he
should not have permitted his desire to guide him in
the first place.
Ko-no-Hana
(Ko-no-Hana-Saku-ya-Hime)
The
Japanese Blossom Princess ("child-flower"), the
symbol of delicate earthly life. She makes the
flowers blossom. She is the daughter of the mountain
god Oho-Yama, and is the wife of Ninigi. She met
him on the seashore and they fell in love. Ninigi
asked Oho-Yama for his daughter's hand, but the
mountain god proposed that he should marry his
elder daughter Iha-Naga ("princess live-long")
instead. Ninigi choose Ko-no-Hana and the lived
happily together and had three sons, including
Hoderi and Hoori.
Their
marriage, however, was not a happy one.
Because of her husbands unreasonable jealousy
Ko-no-Hana retired to a hut in the woods. The hut
she later set on fire and she perished in the flames
Kumo
Various
Japanese myths tell of huge spiders (kumo),
bigger than a man, with eyes a big a saucers, sharp
teeth, and long legs. These spiders hide in old
castles, looking like innocent heaps of clothes.
Unwary travelers, seeking shelter and laying down
to sleep, will wake up to find themselves imprisoned
by huge sticky spider webs. Those webs are too
tough to be undone except by magic. One particular
myth tells of a miser whose blood was sucked by a
gigantic spider until he repented. The hero Reiko
had various encounters with these monsters.
