Gyōchū – [Yokai | KanNoMushi]

Description

Gyōchū – 蟯虫, ぎょうちゅう – “Pinworm” – [Yokai | KanNoMushi]

• About this mushi: A terrible, six legged, pointy headed, floppy tongued gossiping germ that infests humans on the night of Koshin-no-hi (a taoist tradition occurring every 60 days on the Chinese calendar.) – These germs propagate on genitalia and spread between people who do the adult tango on that one particular evening. ((so yes, It’s a yokai S.T.D. (S.T.Y? )- it leaves its hosts to fly down to Jigoku (hell) where it tattles on them, to none other than the Lord of hell, Great King Enma. – Telling him all the juicy sins & intrusive thoughts the person has ever had, assuredly, damning them to an afterlife in hell: it soon returns to the host, and causes terminal leprosy & other nasty diseases in its host. – [Though the effect of this one is simply listed as “Divine Punishment” in the book.]-

• Cure: No effective cure is listed, the best way to avoid this is to respect the gods by abstaining on this particular night.

History: Another One of 63 ‘KanNoMushi’ 疳の虫 (germ/parasitic Yokai) from the “Harikikigaki” 針聞書 or “the book of needles” – a tome about acupuncture & medical knowledge written in 1568 by an unkown resident of Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

[the original via kyushu museums collection]

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky (yo thats me!) – Part of my Night parade of 100 Demons – Yokai & Japanese folklore sticker collection, weather-resistant 4″ Glossy sticker. Check my shop & follow @samkalensky for many more!