Akaname

The is a Japanese ''yōkai'' depicted in Toriyama Sekien's 1776 book ''Gazu Hyakki Yagyō'', with its precursor or equivalent documented earlier in 1686.

These beings presumably lick the filth and scum that collect in bathtubs and bathrooms.

Terminology

The word ''aka'' refers to dead skin on a person's body, alongside the dirt, grime, or sweat that may be scrubbed or washed off; the ''aka'' can also refer to scum that accumulates at the bathhouse as a result, including perhaps mildew.

Hence the name ''akaname'' means 'scum-licker' or 'filth-licker".

There is speculation whether ''aka'' alludes to impurities or defilements of the soul, or negative thoughts known in Buddhism as ''bonnō'' (Sankskrit: '' kleshas''), and the ''yōkai'' may serve as warning not to be so preoccupied with such thoughts as to be derelict in the chores of cleansing the bath of such filth. Another speculation is a possible connection to the sacred water used as offering in Buddhism, known as water, or in Sanskrit, .

Edo period

The name ''akaname'' ("filth-licker", "scum-licker") first appeared in '' Gazu hyakkiyagyō'' (1776), one of several illustrated yōkai collections by Toriyama Sekien according to some commentators, however, the variant name with the same meaning was described earlier in the kaidan book (1686) by . The form is also attested in a work called compiled by Genki (presumably Kanda Genki).

Sekien did not provide any verbal details regarding his ''akaname'', as was the case in all the yōkai depicted in this particular early work of his.
However, the ''Nittō honzō zusan'' provided ample details, describing it as child-like, with a pebbly? () head, round eyes, long tongue, and several example anecdotes are also provided. In classical Edo Period depictions the ''akaname'' resembles a human child with clawed feet and cropped heads, sticking out its long tongue at a bathing area. In Sekien's (monochrome) drawing the ''akaname'' stands around the corner of a "bathhouse", though the setting appears to be a bath housed in a outhouse separated from the main house (living quarters), rather than a public bathhouse. In the ''Hyakushu kaibutsu yōkai sugoroku'' (1858), it is depicted as an eerie, blue-black skinned figure.

The ''Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban'' gives lecture on how the ''akaneburi'' originates, supposedly it spawns in an area where dust and grime/filth/scum (''aka'') at an old bathhouse or at a derelict tattered home. That is to say, the ''akaname'' was said to emanate （''keshō'' ）from the ''ki'' (; '' qi'') energy or ''inki'' () negative energy of the accumulated detritus, and the ''akaneburi'' also subsists on eating the filth of its environs.

A more sinister type of ''akaneburi'' which assumes the guise of a beautiful woman is also described in the entry in ''Nittō honzō zusan'', and it is claimed she will lick away the blood and flesh until only the skeletal carcass remains. The work gives as example the anecdote concerning a man who was in the hot springs at Banshū (Harima Province), and when he allowed a woman to scrub his back, he was licked down to his bones and died.

Shōwa, Heisei, and beyond

In literature about ''yōkai'' from the periods of Shōwa, Heisei, and beyond, ''akaname'' and ''akaneburi'' were interpreted the same way as above. These interpretations state that the ''akaname'' is a ''yōkai'' that lives in old bathhouses and dilapidated buildings that would sneak into places at night when people are asleep using its long tongue to lick the filth and grime sticking to bath places and bathtubs. It does not do anything other than lick filth, but since ''yōkai'' were considered unsettling to encounter, it is said that people worked hard to ensure that the bath places and bathtubs are washed clean so that the ''akaname'' wouldn't come.

There were none who saw what the ''akaname'' truly were, but since ''aka'' can remind people of the color red (''aka'' in Japanese), they are said to have red faces or be entirely red. And due to the double entendre pun on ''aka'' which can refer to both the filth which is the yōkai's essence and to the color red, a (modern) artist tends to conventionally illustrate the ''akaname'' as being of red color.

In popular culture

The Pokémon Lickitung is partially based on the Akaname.

The ''akaname'' has been depicted in various media, including in the anime and video game franchise '' Yo-kai Watch''.

In 2020, Lush released a bubble bar named for and modeled after the creatures.

See also

* ''Aka Manto'' ("Red Cape"), a Japanese urban legend about a spirit which appears in bathrooms
* ''Bannik'', a spirit which appears in bathhouses in Slavic mythology
* Hanako-san, a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl who haunts school bathrooms
* ''Madam Koi Koi'', an African urban legend about the ghost of a woman who haunts school
* '' Teke Teke'', a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a girl with no legs

Explanatory notes

References

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{{Japanese folklore long

Japanese bathroom ghosts
Japanese folklore
Yōkai