Amazake-babaa

Sources present Amazake-babaa as a locally specific yōkai tied to households and disease in areas of northern Honshū (Miyagi and Aomori) and as a variant figure in Yamanashi (amazake-banbā/banbaa). In Kohinata, Bunkyō (Tokyo) a neighborhood tradition treats her not as a supernatural being but as a deceased local amazake-seller who died of a common cold and was posthumously deified as a protector of children; a statue was later erected by the abbot of Nichirin-ji Temple. The figure is also described historically as a localized goddess of smallpox during times when smallpox was rampant.

Cited descriptions characterize her simply as an old woman or hag (the element 婆/babaa) and emphasize her childlike calling voice when at doorways. The sources do not provide consistent iconographic details (clothing, deformities, or height) beyond the generic ‘‘old woman’’ form; regional variants likewise lack detailed physical descriptions.

Amazake-babaa's primary attributed action is to come to house doors late at night and call out in a childlike voice asking for amazake. In Miyagi and Aomori accounts, anyone who answers is said to fall ill with smallpox or the common cold. In the Yamanashi variant (amazake-banbā/banbaa) she attempts to sell sake and amazake door-to-door and similarly causes disease to those who answer. Historic descriptions also identify her with the local power or deity of smallpox, so communities both feared and propitiated her to protect children.