Hone Karakasa - [Yokai | Tsukumogami]

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• Hone karakasa - 骨傘 - [Yokai | Tsukumogami] - "Bone Umbrella"

• About this yokai: A Tsukumogami of an old, antiquated, wind worn, tattered, paper umbrella. Said to control the weather and cause storms. The stormy weather sent old umbrella flying, the wind turned it inside out, ripping off the paper coating exposing the umbrellas "bones" it went flying off, lost to who knows where. – if it's stormy enough for that to happen, Go inside!!

• History & early appearances: Hone karakasa is Yet another creation of Toriyama Seiken from his "Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro" [published in 1784] where in Toriyama Seiken created several Tsukumogami, based on poems or other turns of phrases. – According to Japandemonium [2016] the included poem translates as such:

"In northern seas lives a fish called the "chiwen" it has a head like a dragon and the body like a fish. It creates clouds that cause rain. This umbrella too is connected to the rain; perhaps it appears when the rain does. So i dreamed"

The poem references another Yokai originating from china called the 'Chiwen' But In Japanese the yokai is better known as the "Sachihoko" - Those golden tiger-dragon-fish roof ornaments that you can sometimes see on top of Japanese (& Chinese) castles! They're said to be rain gods who protect buildings from fires by bringing rain. - Which is something this poor bent, burning umbrella clearly needs... its 'bones' are exposed, its on fire, and its been bent in a similar sorry shape. - Toriyama compared it to this yokai, so that's where the idea that it controls storms comes form. in essence its an umbrella-dragon.

[image source wikipedia]

The traditional techniques used to make these paper umbrellas are made using layered washi-papers which have been lacquered (coated using oils) to increase the strength and weather resistance of the paper! - [Umbrellas are still traditionally made like this in Mima today!] - Many yokai and ghosts seem to think oil is delicious for one reason or another, (at the time, Lamp oil was often made from fish or crushed tea leaves.) - Both Kasa-Obake and Chochin-Obake have been said to drink the oil from lamps, I suppose that a reason why Tsukumogami like so much could be because its part of how they where put assembled too. - [A few other Lamp oil-drinking related yokai (which aren't objects) are Abura akago, Abura sumashi, bakeneko, Rokurokubi & Ubagabi]

Umbrella-yokai appear among the tsukumogami in some of the earliest h yakki yagyo emaki, where Toriyama took much of his design inspiration from. Umbrella-based yokai have existed in older emaki picture scrolls, card games and even political cartoons for a very long time! - Although Hone-karakasa its popularly said to be a direct relative to the very popular Kasa-Obake. There's little relation (Apart from both of them being unruly tsukumogami umbrellas said to appear on rainy days.) The one legged and one eyed 'haunted house Kasa-Obake' which most of us know today, became popularized long after Sekiens books. -

[an umbrella headed old man walking with a cane. image source]

Regardless of their relationship, I decided to give mine an eye instead of a snout, as a call back to my first Kasa-Obake, back when the time i drew that one (2017?) there seems to be some conflation between the two in popular lore.

I find it interesting that so many modern depictions seem to draw Hone-karakasa as just one umbrella, when the original Sekien did looks more a fusion of like 2-3 Umbrellas to me? - Well, I'm sure we've all been out walking with friends during a storm, suddenly a strong wind picks up and sends our umbrellas flying, they get struck by lightning, set on fire, fuse and suddenly become a yokai and then chase after us... [No? only me??]

[Art sticker & write up by @samkalensky, part of my night parade of 100 demons, yokai sticker collection support and follow for more!]

Hone Karakasa - [Yokai | Tsukumogami]

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