Today’s Yōkai is another Tsukumogami. An animated sentient object set to cause mischief and trouble. The karakasabake is a traditional bamboo umbrella that develops human features and runs about startling humans. The karakasaobake rarely harms its victims choosing instead to alarm. Its a popular figure to be depicted in Japanese media and considered a figure of fun prone to popping up to startle the unexpecting.
There are no folktales about the karasakeobake, sometimes called kasa-obake, suggesting that it was a made up figure and was often depicted in picture scrolls. During Edo period such picture scrolls were very popular and entirely new Yōkai were often invented beginning life as pictures of zany things. Such creatures were happily embraced by artists at the time and many became famous, developing stories of their own.
It usually has one eye, and one leg on which it hops about, and its most famous feature is its long, lolling tongue. Its with this that it most often alarms its victims, appearing suddenly and licking their faces. Imagine looking about for an umbrella on a rainy day only for your to suddenly sprout a leg, and hop giggling around the room licking you with its horribly long tongue.
Mar2
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