| Akaname | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Other Names |
Akaname, Akaneburi |
|
First Appearance |
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) |
|
Created by |
Toriyama Sekien |
Origin[]
The akaname (scum-licker, filth-licker) is a Japanese yōkai depicted in Toriyama Sekien's 1776 book Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, with its precursor or equivalent akaneburi documented earlier in 1686. It presumably lick the filth and scum that collect in bathtubs and bathrooms.
It was described as child-like, with a pebbly head, round eyes, long tongue, and several example anecdotes are also provided. In classical Edo Period depictions the akaname resembles a human child with clawed feet and cropped heads, sticking out its long tongue at a bathing area. In Sekien's (monochrome) drawing the akaname stands around the corner of a "bathhouse", though the setting appears to be a bath housed in an outhouse separated from the main house (living quarters), rather than a public bathhouse. In the Hyakushu kaibutsu yōkai sugoroku (1858), it is depicted as an eerie, blue-black skinned figure.
The Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban gives lecture on how the akaneburi originates, supposedly it spawns in an area where dust and grime/filth/scum (aka) at an old bathhouse or at a derelict tattered home. That is to say, the akaname was said to emanate (keshō 化生) from the ki (気; qi) energy or inki (陰気) negative energy of the accumulated detritus, and the akaneburi also subsists on eating the filth of its environs.
A more sinister type of akaneburi which assumes the guise of a beautiful woman is also described in the entry in Nittō honzō zusan, and it is claimed she will lick away the blood and flesh until only the skeletal carcass remains. The work gives as example the anecdote concerning a man who was in the hot springs at Banshū (Harima Province), and when he allowed a woman to scrub his back, he was licked down to his bones and died.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban (1686)
- Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776)
- Hyakushu kaibutsu yōkai sugoroku (1858)
- Nittō honzō zusan (1780)
Notes[]
- The Pokémon Lickitung is partially based on the Akaname.