Bake-kujira

Sources present the bake-kujira as the apparition or spirit of a dead whale manifesting offshore. In the Shimane/Oki tradition it is interpreted as a resentful or vengeful whale-spirit arising in contexts where whales wash ashore or where human whaling and treatment of whale carcasses are thought to have violated obligations of respect. One documented local response after a whale beached in Meiwa 1 (1764) in Chibu Bay was the development of a hand dance to comfort the whale's spirit, later transformed into a kabuki-style performance associated with a shrine festival; this situates the bake-kujira within a moral-ritual framework linking human action toward whales with spiritual consequences.

In the canonical accounts the entity first appears offshore as a large, pale figure; on approach it is seen to be no living whale but the bare skeleton of a baleen whale with no skin or flesh. Tales emphasize the whitened, skeletal form and report that its appearance is accompanied by oddly-shaped fish and strange birds gathered near the surface.

Folkloric accounts describe the bake-kujira as an uncanny revenant that approaches fishermen and draws attention offshore. In the tale fishermen attempt to harpoon or capture it but the implements have no effect or pass through the apparition; the creature is followed by swarms of strange fish and birds that appear near shore and then retreat. Sources interpret the bake-kujira as a vengeful spirit whose appearance portends misfortune; some later or derivative summaries expand this to include pestilence and disasters after whale beachings, though primary accounts emphasize omen, resentment, and the need for placation rather than a detailed catalogue of active magical effects.