Ubagabi

Variant local legends attribute the ubagabi's origin to specific human misdeeds committed by an old woman rather than to a single unified cosmology. In a Kawachi/Hiraoka account preserved in sources such as the Shokoku Rijin Dan and related anthologies, an old woman who stole oil from Hiraoka Shrine is said to have become, or caused, a mysterious flame. In a Tanba/Hozu River tradition, an old woman who murdered or abandoned children and later drowned in a flood is said to have been followed by a mysterious flame appearing near the river. These etiological accounts present the ubagabi as a localized cursed or punitive manifestation connected to particular transgressions in their respective narratives.

Commonly described as a ball of fire; one Shokoku Rijin Dan description specifies a length of one shaku (about 30 centimeters). Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō depicts the ubagabi as mysterious flames containing an old woman's face. Narratives also record brief variability: in one tale the flame struck a person's face, momentarily assumed the form of a chicken-like bird, and then returned to a ball of fire when it flew away.

Reports describe rapid, highly mobile movement (one account says it 'flies a length of about one ri in a mere instant') and harmful consequences of proximity: a tale asserts that if an ubagabi grazes around a person's shoulder, that person will die within three years. It may change form between a luminous ball and a brief avian shape. Across sources the ubagabi's appearances are linked causally to the human-origin stories in each local account.