Hizo No Kesshaku – [Yokai|KanNoMushi

Description

Hizō no kesshaku – 脾臓の血積, ひぞうのけっしゃく – “Spleen blood mass.”

• About this mushi: These caterpillar like worms form in pairs inside of the infected hosts spleen, It has a thirteen or fourteen segmented-grub-like body: On one end (presumably the head) a round, bulbous blue orb with a red dot on the inside. While on the other end is round or flat red tail. They cause blood or other organ related issues!

• Cure: Regular ingestion of the seeds of ripe ōbako (Plantago asiatica; asian plantain) are said to eliminate this bug entirely. – [Interestingly: the mentioned herb has been used to treat liver diseases (in mice.) it also has a long use standing in Chinese medicines and such. (seemingly nothing documented about it having to do with the spleen or parasite removal however!!)]

• History: Yet another one of 63 ‘KanNoMushi’ 疳の虫 (germ/parasitic Yokai) from the “Harikikigaki” 針聞書 or “the book of needles” – a mysterious book about acupuncture & medical knowledge written in 1568 by an unkown resident of Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. – Sadly the Harikikigaki (& subsequently; the Kyushu national museum’s guide book to it) Only has two lines written about this one: The illustration, The description of the illustration, and then the cure. so its difficult to say much more about it! Its one of the much more mysterious mushi!

[HD image source is via kyushu national museum: https://collection.kyuhaku.jp/application/?at=advanced/detail&dpage=4&id=2229]

• My Observations & Theories: Perhaps its a larval stage to another Mushi? – The guide book says these are “caterpillar-like” after-all! 🤔 – as i’ve said earlier, There are a couple of other gross mushi that are depictions of worms, or other msuhi in their larval stages or they are pictured outright breeding in swarms in the book. – Yuck!! – Once again, I gave this one a cute face to cope and put my mind at ease; but the original doesn’t actually have a face! – I also like to picture the red dot as the actual head inside of a bubble or cell like membrane? but theres no telling if thats at all accurate or not. anyway its was an easy one to do so i decided to get er done (Probably one more tommorrow <3)

Grubs, worms and larvae give me the servere icks, but for some reason i’m fine with caterpillars. i wish i knew why.

[Art stickers by @samkalensky part of my Hyakkiyagyo night parade of 100 demons sticker collection follow and support for many more!]