Yōkai of the day: Sunakake Baba

Yōkai are creatures of the shadow world. Noises in the corner of the room, bumps in the night, and mysterious occurrences. While many have multiple depictions, others remain constantly invisible and only ever exist in the imagination. One such Yōkai is the Sunakake baba, until she was depicted my Mizuki Shigeru as a sour-faced old woman, she was merely an invisible entity that hurls sand in travelers’ faces. She is one of many Yōkai that delight in troubling and confusing humans and like many has oddly specific habits. She particularly enjoys bothering travelers who walk through bamboo grooves but doesn’t seem to cause any other harm.