or Japanese: chōchin-obake is a Japanese Japanese: [[yōkai]] of Japanese: [[chōchin]] (a type of lantern),[1] "[the] lantern-spook (Japanese: chochinobake) ... a stock character in the pantheon of ghouls and earned mention in the definitive demonology of 1784".[2] They can also be called simply Japanese: chōchin, Japanese: bake-chōchin, Japanese: obake-chōchin, and Japanese: chōchin-kozō.
They appear in the Japanese: [[kusazōshi]], Japanese: [[omocha-e]], and Japanese: [[karuta]] card games like Japanese: [[obake karuta]] starting from the Edo period to the early 20th century (and still in use today),[3] as well as in Meiji and Taishō toys, children's books, and haunted house attractions.
An old Japanese: chōchin would split upwards and downwards, and the part that got split would become a mouth and stick out a long tongue, and the Japanese: chōchin obake is commonly considered not to have one eye in its upper half, but two. Sometimes, the Japanese: chōchin would also grow a face, hands, a torso, and wings.
In pictures from the Edo period, both bucket-shaped and cylindrical Japanese: chōchin[4] were depicted. In the Japanese: [[Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro]] by Sekien Toriyama, a lantern-shaped Japanese: yōkai under the name of Japanese: {{ill|bura-bura|ja|不落不落 was depicted.[5]
They are also known from Japanese: ukiyo-e such as Katsushika Hokusai's Japanese: italic=no|Oiwa-san from the One Hundred Ghost Stories, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's Japanese: Kamiya Iemon Oiwa no Bōkon from the Edo period and beyond. These were inspired by the Japanese: kabuki, the Japanese: [[Yotsuya Kaidan|Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan]] (1825), in which the spirit of Oiwa, who was killed by Kamiya Iemon, was performed displaying itself from a Japanese: chōchin (which was called Japanese: chōchin'nuke),[6] and as well as another performance in which a Japanese: chōchin had a human face, the (in 1825, at the Japanese: italic=no|Nakamura-za among other places[7]), so these were called Japanese: chōchin'oiwa.[8]
Among Japanese: emakimono that depict many Japanese: yōkai of tools, there is the Japanese: {{ill|Hyakki Yagyō Emaki|ja|百鬼夜行絵巻, but there have been no Japanese: chōchin found in older works before the Edo Period. Examples of works after the Edo Period include the by Japanese: italic=no|Kanō Jōshin.[9]
The Japanese: chōchin'obake in particular was created from a Japanese: [[Japanese lantern#Chōchin|chōchin]] lantern composed of "bamboo and paper or silk".[10] They are portrayed with "one eye, and a long tongue protruding from an open mouth".[10]
Although they are famous Japanese: yōkai, it is said that there are almost no legends in any area that are about this, so in Japanese: yōkai-related literature they are classified as "Japanese: yōkai that exist only in pictures".[11] It is also commonly believed that they were created as a story for entertaining children.[12] The Japanese: yōkai comic artist Mizuki Shigeru published a story about how a Japanese: chōchin'obake would surprise people and suck out their souls, but it did not cite any primary sources.[13]
Also, Japanese: yōkai considered to be Japanese: chōchin in the legends are often described as atmospheric ghost lights like Japanese: [[chōchinbi]] rather than as the tool itself.
In an old story from the Yamagata Prefecture, at a shrine with an aged Japanese: chōchin, a Japanese: chōchin'obake would appear and frighten humans. The Japanese: obake would no longer appear after the Japanese: chōchin was put away.[14]
ja:湯本豪一
. ja:妖怪あつめ. Yōkai collection. 2002. Kadokawa Shoten. Preface p. 3, 百物語ばけもの双六 [100 Sugoroku Ghost Stories]. 978-4-048-83753-8.ja:高田衛
. Mamoru . Takada . Atsunobu . Inada . Naohi . Tanaka . ja:鳥山石燕 画図百鬼夜行. Sekien Toriyama's Illustrations of Hyakki Yagyō . 1992. Kokushokankokai. 978-4-336-03386-4.ja:服部幸雄
. ja:さかさまの幽霊 <視>の江戸文化論 . Upside Down Ghost: Edo Cultural Theory of 'Vision' . . 1989 . 4-582-28464-7.ja:多田克己
. Katsumi . Tada .ja:久保田一洋-->
. Kazuhiro . Kubota . ja:北斎妖怪百景. Hokusai's Yōkai: 100 Scenes. 2004. Kokushokankokai. 978-4-336-04636-9. 57.ja:湯本豪一
. ja:百鬼夜行絵巻―妖怪たちが騒ぎだす. Hyakki Yagyō Emaki – Yōkai make a ruckus. . 2005.ja:村上健司
. ja:妖怪事典. Yōkai Encyclopedia. 2000. Mainichi Shimbun. 978-4-620-31428-0. 220.