Atmospheric ghost lights

Accounts vary by locality. In many Japanese tales named varieties arise from transformed dead (e.g., two women who fell into Misuma pond becoming paired lights; a vendor killed by a robber memorialized as a nightly fire in Jōsenbi), or from collective transformations of animals (spiders becoming a ball of fire in Kumobi/Kumo no Hi). Elsewhere lights are framed as wandering spirits of the dead, fairies, trickster beings, or non‑agent optical/electrical phenomena; some English and global traditions treat them as will‑o'‑wisps or treasure markers. These origin narratives appear across folklore collections and local stories rather than as a single canonical myth.

Typically described as balls, orbs, lantern‑like fires, beams, or drifting lights. Colors and scale vary by account: paired small balls over ponds (Osabi), umbrella‑sized floating fires that burst into star‑like lights (Nobi), red dancing balls above forests (Kumo no Hi), or solitary or recurring lights in valleys, deserts, or above water. Modern reportage also describes stationary beams (St. Louis light), valley lights (Hessdalen), and anomalous orbs (Marfa, Min Min).

Folkloric behaviors include hovering, drifting, flying along valleys, dancing above water or forests, and appearing near graves, shrines, or spots of former violence. They function in narrative as omens (portents of death), markers of buried goods or treasure, or as the residual presence of wronged/deceased persons. Scientific interpretations offered in sources include electrical discharges (St. Elmo's fire, ball lightning), combustion of gases, and misperception of distant lights; these are presented as alternative explanations rather than folkloric abilities.