The Basan is attested in Edo-period illustrated catalogs of strange creatures rather than in a creation myth. It first appears in Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) and is later recorded in Takehara Shunsen’s Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (1841). These compendia present the Basan as part of a taxonomy of uncanny beings tied to particular landscapes and nocturnal phenomena; the sources do not offer a cosmogonic origin or a mythic birth story for the creature.
Accounts and illustrations describe the Basan as a fowl-like bird approximately the size of a turkey or large chicken, often shown with a bright red cockscomb and plumage rendered like tongues of flame. Different depictions vary in color details—some illustrations show blue hackles or greenish sickle feathers—but the consistent features are its chicken-like form and a luminous breath emitted from its mouth. The breath is depicted as fire-like in appearance but is described as a cold glow that does not ignite materials.
The Basan emits a visible, glowing breath likened to dragon's fire or 'ghost-fire' that gives off no heat and does not burn combustible materials. It feeds on charred wood and embers, venturing into remote villages at night to consume remaining bonfires or charcoal. Its wing-flapping produces an eerie rustling sound; sources report that if a human hears this sound and looks outside, the bird's form will suddenly vanish. The provided materials do not record aggressive harm to people or possessions.
Apsara
Celestial dancers and water nymphs of Hindu cosmology — beautiful semi-divine beings who dance at the court of Indra and, by his command, descend to earth to distract sages from excessive asceticism.
Will-o'-the-Wisp
A wandering light seen over marshy ground at night, leading travellers astray into bogs and fens. Possibly a spirit, possibly the soul of the unbaptised dead, possibly the devil himself.
Banshee
A female spirit of Irish and Scottish folklore whose wail heralds an impending death in a family of Gaelic descent. Not a cause of death — a witness to it.
Abumi-guchi
A Japanese yōkai classed as a tsukumogami: an animated stirrup (abumi) depicted in Sekien Toriyama's Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. Traditional accounts say it is formed from a stirrup that belonged to a soldier who fell in battle and that it waits where the stirrup lies for its dead owner to return.
Abura-sumashi
A yōkai spirit from the Amakusa region of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, said to inhabit mountain passes. Traditionally explained as the ghost of a person who stole oil, it appears to surprise travelers and is represented in modern media with a straw-coat body and a potato- or stone-like head.
Akaname
Akaname is a Japanese yōkai associated with baths, bathtubs, toilets, and other places where scum and filth accumulate. Traditionally depicted as a child-like creature that licks grime, it functions in folklore as a cautionary figure tied to cleanliness; a few narrative variants cast it as dangerously predatory.
Akateko
Akateko (赤手児, lit. 'red child's hand') is a yōkai from Japanese folklore commonly told as a small, red, disembodied child's hand that appears from trees—especially the Japanese honey locust—and startles travelers; in some regional variants it is accompanied by a specter of a young woman or manifests as paired foot- or leg-like apparitions. Accounts vary between mostly harmless trickster apparition and a violent variant that attacks humans.
Akubōzu
Akubōzu (灰坊主, Akubōzu) is a household yōkai from parts of Akita and Iwate Prefectures in northern Japan said to live in the ashes of the hearth. Sources say they appear when people (notably children) play with or dig in hearth/furnace ash; the figure is cited as part of a broader Tōhoku motif warning against disturbing ash.
Akuma
Akuma (悪魔／あくま) in Japanese sources is an evil spirit, devil, or demon associated with misfortune and mental disturbance. The term appears in Buddhist texts and Heian-period literature and was later used to translate the Christian figure of Satan, as well as the Buddhist Mara.
Akurojin-no-hi
Akurojin-no-hi (悪路神の火, "fire of the god of the bad road") is a flamelike ghost from the folklore of Mie Prefecture, Japan. It is reported to appear on rainy nights; those who encounter it and do not run away are said to become gravely ill. The phenomenon is sparsely documented and is usually compared to will-o'-the-wisp type ghost-lights.
Amabie
Amabie is a mid-19th-century Japanese yogenjū-type wondrous creature attested in kawaraban and related pamphlet culture that emerges from the sea (in canonical accounts) to prophesy about harvests and epidemics and prescribes that its image be drawn and shown to the sick as a protective measure.
Amanojaku
Amanojaku (天邪鬼 / あまのじゃく) is a Japanese yōkai-type being portrayed as a contrarian, heart-reading trickster. Treated in different contexts as a small ogre (ko-oni), a wicked demon (jaki) in Buddhist iconography, and a folkloric spirit that provokes human vice, it appears across regional tales with variable roles from malicious kidnapper to household oddity.
Amefurikozō
Amefurikozō (雨降小僧 or 雨降り小僧) is an Edo-period yōkai figure depicted in classical illustrated and popular print culture as a youthful attendant associated with rain. Classical sources (notably Sekien Toriyama's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki) present it as a kozō-type servant linked by captional wordplay to a rain deity; later popular literature elaborates its rain-producing role and playful mischief on rainy nights.
Ameonna
Ameonna (雨女, "rain woman") is a figure in Japanese folklore treated as a yōkai associated with rain. Sources depict her both as a rain-calling supernatural being (sometimes helpful in drought) and as a folk label for an unlucky person whom rain seems to follow; a key pictorial source is Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi.
Amorōnagu
Amorōnagu (Amorōnagu / 天降女子) is a tennyo or celestial maiden figure in the folklore of Amami Ōshima (Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan). Attested sources describe her as a heavenly woman who bathes in pools and waterfalls in ravines on the island.
Community Record
- [1]Basan (legendary bird) - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Basan (legendary bird)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (Toriyama Sekien, 1776) / Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Takehara Shunsen, 1841) — summaries in modern sources. Summaries of Basan in Edo-period illustrated compendia (Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and Takehara Shunsen's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari) as cited in provided research notes.literary
- [3]Five Mythical Birds from Around the World – Under the influence!. Evans, 'Five Mythical Birds from Around the World', Under the influence! (blog), May 2021.other