''Marebito'' ( or ) is an ancient

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

word referring to a

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

being who comes from afar bringing gifts of wisdom, spiritual knowledge and happiness. The word ''mare'' means "rare," while -''bito'' (from the word ''hito'') means both "person" and "spirit." The term refers to any one of a number of divine beings who were believed to visit villages in Japan, either from beyond the horizon or from beyond distant

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

s, bringing gifts. Villagers usually welcomed a ''marebito'' with rituals or festivals. The 20th-century folklorist

Shinobu Orikuchi , also known as , was a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named , which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and Shintō. He ...

, student of the great

Japanese folklore Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, customs, and material culture. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The academic study ...

scholar

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

, was the first to bring the ancient concept of ''marebito'' to the attention of modern scholars, and it has been widely assumed that the ''marebito'' tradition died out long ago. However, remnants can still be found in some areas of Japan, such as

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

, where the ''

Namahage The are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty '' oni'' (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes ('' mino'') during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture. General descri ...

'' tradition is maintained.

References

Shinto kami {{japan-myth-stub