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Nurikabe
The nurikabe (塗り壁 or 塗壁, literally "plastered wall",) is a yōkai, or spirit, from Japanese folklore.
It is said to manifest as an invisible wall that impedes or misdirects travelers walking at night. This yōkai is described as quite tall, to prevent people from climbing over it, and wide enough to dampen any attempts to go around it.
Japanese scholar and folklorist Kunio Yanagita recorded perhaps the most prominent early example of nurikabe and other yōkai in his books. Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki claims to have had a nurikabe-like experience, being stuck in coal tar in New Guinea, inspiring a nurikabe character in his manga Gegege no Kitarō.
It was thought that no pre-modern pictorial depictions of nurikabe existed until it was noticed in 2007 that a 17th century yōkai picture scroll held by Brigham Young University included a "white dog-elephant like creature" labeled as "nurikabe" (see figure at right) matching a later copy held in Japan.
The nurikabe takes the form of a wall—usually invisible—that blocks the path of travelers as they're walking. With the exception of Mizuki Shigeru's experience in New Guinea, most legends and accounts of nurikabe come from Kyūshū, in the Fukuoka and Ōita prefectures.
Specifically, folklorist Kunio Yanagita (1938) gives the following lore:
It is said in the sea coast of Onga County (kōri), Chikuzen Province (now district of the same name in Fukuoka Prefecture) that when one is walking a path at night, suddenly the destination one is going towards [i.e., the spot ahead] suddenly turns into a wall, and one becomes unable to go anywhere, as it happens sometimes. This [yōkai] is called the nurikabe and is held in fear. If one takes a stick and sweeps at the bottom, it goes away, but striking its top does nothing.
— Yanagita, Yōkai meii (妖怪名彙; "Yōkai Glossary", 1956 [1938])
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Nurikabe
The nurikabe (塗り壁 or 塗壁, literally "plastered wall",) is a yōkai, or spirit, from Japanese folklore.
It is said to manifest as an invisible wall that impedes or misdirects travelers walking at night. This yōkai is described as quite tall, to prevent people from climbing over it, and wide enough to dampen any attempts to go around it.
Japanese scholar and folklorist Kunio Yanagita recorded perhaps the most prominent early example of nurikabe and other yōkai in his books. Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki claims to have had a nurikabe-like experience, being stuck in coal tar in New Guinea, inspiring a nurikabe character in his manga Gegege no Kitarō.
It was thought that no pre-modern pictorial depictions of nurikabe existed until it was noticed in 2007 that a 17th century yōkai picture scroll held by Brigham Young University included a "white dog-elephant like creature" labeled as "nurikabe" (see figure at right) matching a later copy held in Japan.
The nurikabe takes the form of a wall—usually invisible—that blocks the path of travelers as they're walking. With the exception of Mizuki Shigeru's experience in New Guinea, most legends and accounts of nurikabe come from Kyūshū, in the Fukuoka and Ōita prefectures.
Specifically, folklorist Kunio Yanagita (1938) gives the following lore:
It is said in the sea coast of Onga County (kōri), Chikuzen Province (now district of the same name in Fukuoka Prefecture) that when one is walking a path at night, suddenly the destination one is going towards [i.e., the spot ahead] suddenly turns into a wall, and one becomes unable to go anywhere, as it happens sometimes. This [yōkai] is called the nurikabe and is held in fear. If one takes a stick and sweeps at the bottom, it goes away, but striking its top does nothing.
— Yanagita, Yōkai meii (妖怪名彙; "Yōkai Glossary", 1956 [1938])
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