Not a cosmological deity but a folktale narrative: an old childless couple love their dog; the dog uncovers treasure while alive, then is killed by an envious neighbor who borrows it. After death the dog appears in the master's dreams, instructing him first to make a mortar from a specified tree (the rice placed in that mortar turns to gold), and later, after the mortar is smashed and burned, to collect the ashes and sprinkle them on cherry trees so that they bloom and attract the daimyo's favor. The tale is preserved in 19th–20th century collections (Mitford, Thomson, Lang) and educated readers' anthologies.
In the tale the dog is an ordinary pet in life; sources give no extraordinary physical description. The dog's postmortem presence is experienced primarily as dream instruction rather than as a visible ghostly apparition. The human protagonists are portrayed simply as an elderly, childless couple; no distinctive physical features are specified in the summaries.
Within the narrative the dog: finds buried treasure while alive by digging; after death communicates guidance in the master's dreams (instructing him to make a mortar from a specified tree and later to use the burned mortar's ashes); enables transformative effects tied to specific materials and actions (rice placed in the mortar made from the instructed tree becomes gold for the virtuous couple; when the ashes of the burned mortar are sprinkled on cherry trees they come into bloom). The tale also records contrasting outcomes for the envious neighbor who attempts to replicate the actions: his rice becomes foul-smelling berries and his ashes blow into the daimyo's eyes producing misfortune. These powers are limited in the sources to the mortar/ashes sequence and dream instruction.
Weaknesses
- conditionEffects in the tale depend on the moral conduct of the user (kindness rewarded; envy and cruelty lead to failure and punishment)
Wards
- otherNone recorded (the tale presents the dog as beneficent and provides no canonical protective wards against it)
*Perkʷūnos
*Perkʷūnos is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European thunder‑god hypothesized by comparative linguistics and mythology. Scholarly reconstructions portray him as a storm or thunder figure associated with fructifying rain and as the combatant who fights a multi‑headed water‑serpent to release life‑giving waters; no direct attestations from the Proto‑Indo‑European period survive and the figure is inferred from later Indo‑European traditions.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
5 Ronin
5 Ronin is a 2011 Marvel Comics five-issue limited series that reimagines five Marvel superhero archetypes as rōnin (masterless samurai) in a fictionalized post‑Sekigahara feudal Japan. The work places Wolverine, Hulk, Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool analogues into period roles to explore displacement, revenge, and identity in an era of political upheaval.
57 Mnemosyne
57 Mnemosyne is a large main-belt asteroid (S-type) discovered in 1859 and named after the Greek Titaness Mnemosyne. It is a non-sentient astronomical body studied for its orbital and rotational properties and has been used in dynamical measurements related to Jupiter.
Abaddon
In Hebrew scripture Abaddon is primarily a noun meaning 'destruction' or a section/condition of the underworld paired with Sheol; in the New Testament Book of Revelation Abaddon is personified as an angelic figure (Greek Apollyon) described as the king of an army of locusts released from the abyss during the apocalypse.
Aban Yasht
The Aban Yasht is a hymn from the Persian tradition that praises Anahita, a goddess associated with water, fertility, and wisdom. It consists of 132 stanzas and is part of the 21 Yashts collection. (Note: - Power tier should be "Primordial" or possibly "Cosmic", given that it's a hymn of great spiritual significance and associated with a goddess. - The article incorrectly states that Anahita is associa)
Abath
No corroborated folkloric entity named "Abath" is documented in the provided sources. The string appears in the supplied material only as a surname/personal name in Aruban/Dutch-Caribbean archival records and as an unrelated taxonomic or encyclopedic hit; no mythic attributes, origin stories, rituals, or apotropaic practices for an entity called Abath are present in the documents reviewed.
Abatur
Abatur is an uthra (celestial emanation) in Mandaeism described as the 'father of the Uthras' and called the Ancient (ʿattīqā). He resides on the boundary between the World of Light and lower regions, functions as a judge who weighs souls (Abatur Muzania), and supplies instructions and materials to the demiurgic uthra Ptahil in accounts from the Diwan (Scroll) of Abatur.
Abatwa (Twa / Batwa)
Abatwa (also recorded as Twa, Batwa, Mutwa; singular forms Barhwa or Murhwa in some transcriptions) are indigenous hunter‑gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, historically identified as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. The available sources treat them as human ethnic groups whose livelihoods, lands, and populations have been severely affected by conservation policies and modern violence.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the foundational patriarchal ancestor in the Hebrew Bible whose life establishes a covenantal relationship between his family/people and God. He functions as an exemplar of faith, the progenitor of promised descendants, and a narrative anchor for claims of land, blessing, and communal identity in later religious traditions.
Abraun
Abraun is an attested name in German-language plant-legend scholarship (Der abraun, ein beitrag zur pflanzensagenkunde, 1916) and a short database entry (Wikidata) labels it as a spirit from German mythology. Surviving accessible documentation is extremely limited: the principal academic treatment is a 1916 contribution to pflanzensagenkunde (plant-saga studies), but the excerpts available here contain only bibliographic metadata and do not record tales, descriptions, or rituals.
Community Record
- [1]Hanasaka Jiisan (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Hanasaka Jiisanwiki
- [2]Tales of Old Japan (Mitford, 1871) — "The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom". Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Tales of Old Japan (1871) as recorded in folktale anthologiesfolk
- [3]Japanese Fairy Tale Series (Hasegawa Takejirō, translated by Rev. David Thomson, 1885). Rev. David Thomson translation: "The Old Man Who Made the Dead Trees Blossom"folk
- [4]The Violet Fairy Book (Andrew Lang, 1901) — "The Envious Neighbor". Andrew Lang included the tale as "The Envious Neighbor" in The Violet Fairy Book (1901), adapted via a German source (Brauns)literary
- [5]NCERT 7th Standard English Text "Honeycomb" — "The Ashes That Made Trees Bloom" (William Elliot Griffis). Modern educational adaptation titled "The Ashes That Made Trees Bloom"folk