Konaki-jiji
Konaki-jiji (子泣き爺; also romanized konaki-jijii or konakijijii) is a yōkai — a supernatural creature from Japanese folklore — originating in the mountain regions of Tokushima Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. The name is typically translated as "old man crying like a baby" or "baby-crying old man," combining ko naki (子泣き, "child crying") with jijii (爺, "old man"). It is one of the most widely recognized yōkai in Japan, documented in major folklorist compilations, depicted visually for the first time by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, and featured across decades of Japanese popular culture.[1][2][3]
The konaki-jiji is notable for its deceptive method of attack: it lures compassionate travelers by mimicking the sound of an infant crying in the wilderness, then, once picked up, becomes supernaturally heavy, crushing its victim to death.[4]
Name and etymology
[edit]The kanji rendering 子泣き爺 breaks down as:
子 (ko) — child
泣き (naki) — crying
爺 (jijii) — old man, grandfather
An alternate kanji form, 児啼爺, uses ji (児, infant) in place of ko, foregrounding the creature's infantile cry rather than its origin as a child spirit. The name is sometimes written in hiragana as 子泣きじじい to emphasize the elongated vowel of jijii. Regional oral traditions in the mountainous areas of Shikoku may feature slight phonetic variants, though the standard form became fixed after the yokai was documented in early 20th-century folklore scholarship.[5][6]
Description
[edit]The Konaki-jiji is said to be able to take the appearance of an old man or a baby.[7][8] In either case, the spirit lures an unwary passerby towards it and allows him or her to pick it up. After the spirit is picked up, it suddenly becomes a heavy stone that crushes the victim to death.[7][8] In some versions of Konaki-jiji stories, the spirit is that of a baby left to die in the wilderness.[9]
The Konaki-jiji can be traced back to family records in Shikoku where the term was used to describe an old man who sounded like a child when he cried.[10] The term was eventually used in a national encyclopedia of yōkai and became a nationally known phenomenon.[10]
In popular culture
[edit]In the manga series Dandadan, the spirit known as onbusuman is based on the Konaki-jiji. In the manga it appears as a creature with the large head of an old man, the shell of a turtle, the arms and legs of an infant and a long hairy tail.[11]
References
[edit]- ↑ Koda, Retsu (2021). "Yōkai as the Edge of The World". Global Perspectives on Japan (4).
- ↑ Kreiner, Josef (2017). "Brief Remarks on Paradigm Shifts in Japanese Anthropology during the 20th Century". Global Perspectives on Japan (1).
- ↑ Suzuki, Shige (CJ) (2019). "Yōkai Monsters at Large: Mizuki Shigeru's Manga, Transmedia Practices, and (Lack of) Cultural Politics". International Journal of Communication. 13.
- ↑ Cheung, Theresa (2006). The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World (1st ed.). London: HarperCollins. p. 369. ISBN 9780007211487.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ↑ Splisgart, Jacek (2021). "Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962). Pioneer of Japanese folklore studies". Gdańskie Studia Azji Wschodniej (19): 181–195.
- ↑ Yanagita, Kunio (1998). Yanagita Kunio zenshū [The Complete Works of Yanagita Kunio] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - 1 2 Baker, Tom (24 December 2010). "A procession of countless demons; From animated trash to sharp-toothed education mamas, there's a yokai for everything". The Daily Yomiuri. p. 9.
- 1 2 Kan, Saori (18 January 2008). "TV's 'Kitaro' turns 40". The Daily Yomiuri. p. 12.
- ↑ "Konakijiji". Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. Harper Collins. 2006. p. 369.
- 1 2 Frenchy Lunning (5 November 2008). Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-8166-5482-6. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
- ↑ "[第124話]ダンダダン - 龍幸伸". 少年ジャンプ＋ (in Japanese). Retrieved 8 November 2024.
