Kechibi
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Kechibi (けち火) is an
atmospheric ghost light Atmospheric ghost lights are lights (or fires) that appear in the atmosphere without an obvious cause. Examples include the onibi, hitodama and will-o'-wisp. They are often seen in humid climates. Tsunoda 1979, pages 11-53 According to legend, so ...
told in the legends of
Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...
.


Outline

It is stated to be the
onryō In Japanese traditional beliefs and literature, are a type of ghost () believed to be capable of causing harm in the world of the living, injuring or killing enemies, or even causing natural disasters to exact Revenge, vengeance to "redres ...
of humans turned into balls of fire, and it is said to be possible to beckon for it by beating a
zōri Zori (), also rendered as zōri (, ), are thonged Japanese sandals made of rice straw, cloth, lacquered wood, leather, rubber, or—most commonly and informally—synthetic materials. They are a slip-on descendant of the tied-on sandal. Simila ...
three times, or putting saliva on the zōri and calling for it. It is also said that the face of a human floats in the fire. They are also said to appear above water, and from this they are sometimes called a type of
funayūrei are spirits (yūrei) that have become vengeful ghosts (onryō) at sea. They have been passed down in the folklore of various areas of Japan. They frequently appear in ghost stories and miscellaneous writings from the Edo Period as well as in ...
. In the
Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...
, they are sometimes seen to be the same as the kaika janjanbi. According to the folklore researcher Rinichihara Ichihara's book, they are largely split into two different kinds, the ones that come forth from the flesh the instant a human dies, and those that come from humans while they sleep. As an example of the latter, there was a folktale as follows from the Kami Distrinct,
Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...
(now
Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...
) from the early
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
. When a man called Yoshiyan was walking through the road at night, beside the Monobe River, there was a kechibi turned over on the roadside. Upon coming closer to it, it would start rolling around, and when he chased it due to curiosity, the kechibi would also run away, and eventually he found himself entering a person's home. In that home, a man who was having a nightmare woke up, and said to his wife, "Yoshiyan was chasing me, so I ran away desperately." Also, as a folktale in the Takaoka District also from the Meiji Period, a man with much bravery named Kumaani Saitō witnessed a kechibi, and when he shouted, "come fly over here," it flew right in front of him. Saitō attempted to catch the fire alive, but each time he tried to catch it in his hand or tread on it with his feet the kechibi would disappear, and then reappear over and over. He finally captured it in both hands and took it back to his home, but at his home, when he opened his hand, the kechibi had already disappeared before he knew it. The next day, Kumaani had a fever of unknown cause, and died just like that. In the ''
Tosa Obake Zōshi The ''Tosa Obake Zōshi'' is a Japanese ''yōkai emaki'' (illustrated scroll). It was written by an unknown author and is set in Tosa Province (now Kōchi Prefecture), with 16 sections about yōkai in total; it was created during the Edo period. ...
'' (author unknown), a Yōkai Emaki from the
Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...
(now
Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...
) in the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, it was written as 鬼火 and had furigana indicating a reading of "kechibi".


References

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See also

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List of legendary creatures from Japan The following is a list of Akuma (demons), Yūrei (ghosts), Yōkai (spirits), Kami and other legendary creatures that are notable in Japanese folklore and mythology. A ...
*
Will-o'-the-wisp In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp, or ; ), is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. The phenomenon is known in the United Kingdom by a variety of names, including jack-o'- ...
Atmospheric ghost lights History of Kōchi Prefecture