Janjanbi

Local variants attribute janjanbi to human dead in specific circumstances. In the Byakugō-ji/Daian-ji accounts the lights are said to be the spirits of a man and a woman who committed double suicide and, having been buried separately, became balls of fire that meet above the Fūfu River. In Yanagimotochō/Tainoshōchō a janjanbi is identified as the onryō of the slain commander Tōtada Tōichi; his dying soldiers' cries of 'zannen' were heard as 'jan jan' and are offered as an explanation for the sound the light makes.

In the Nara legends janjanbi are described as balls of fire or hitodama. Specific reports include two balls of fire appearing in the graveyards of Byakugō-ji and Daian-ji which meet and entwine above the Fūfu River; two hitodama that visit annually on June 7th on the bridge above the Saho River (Yamatokōriyama); and a single ball of fire rising from castle remains and flying westward near Fujichō (Tenri), sometimes called Zannenbi.

Stories report that the lights actively move and can approach viewers: the Byakugō-ji account states that when a person sees the fire it 'would come closer to that person' and could follow people even over the surface of a pond. The Yanagimotochō/Tainoshōchō onryō variant is said to cause those who see it to become sick with fever for three days and nights. A narrative anecdote recounts a soldier attacked by a janjanbi who later 'died completely burning' after striking at roadside imagery; these effects are attested in specific tales rather than presented as universal powers.