The ''nurikabe'' (塗り壁 or 塗壁) is a ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

'', or spirit, from

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 ...

. Its name translates to "plaster wall", and it is said to manifest as an invisible wall that impedes or misdirects travelers walking at night. Sometimes referred to in English as "The Wall" or "Mr. Wall", this ''yōkai'' is described as quite tall, to prevent people from climbing over it, and wide enough to dampen any attempts to go around it. Japanese scholar and folklorist

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 ...

recorded perhaps the most prominent early example of ''nurikabe'' and other ''yōkai'' in his books. Manga artist

Mizuki Shigeru was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death ...

claims to have encountered a ''nurikabe'' in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, inspiring a ''nurikabe'' character in his

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Gegege no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...

.''

Mythology

The ''nurikabe'' takes form as a wall—usually invisible—that blocks the path of travelers as they're walking. With the exception of Mizuki Shigeru's experience in New Guinea, most legends and accounts of ''nurikabe'' come from

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, in the Ōita and

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

prefectures. Some iterations of the legend say that trying to go around the wall is futile as it extends forever. Others say that knocking on the bottom left part of the wall with a stick will make it disappear, but that knocking on the upper part of it will yield no result. It has been suggested that the legend of the ''nurikabe'' was created to explain travelers losing their bearings on long journeys. Some ''nurikabe-''like experiences that have been recorded have been attributed as the doing of ''

tanuki Tanuki may refer to: *Japanese raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes viverrinus'' or ''Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus''), a mammal native to Japan *Bake-danuki, a type of spirit (yōkai) in Japanese mythology that appears in the form of the mammal *A de ...

,'' known as ''tanuki no nurikabe''. These happenings, instead of involving a wall, are instances where the traveler suddenly cannot see in front of themselves.

In popular culture

The ''nurikabe'' has been explicitly referenced in several forms of pop culture. There is a ''nurikabe'' character named Nurikabe in Mizuki Shigeru's manga series ''Gegege no Kitarō''. The character's main function is to be a shield in order to protect other members of the Kitarō family. Mizuki attributes much of his inspiration for the series to an experience he had with a ''nurikabe'' in New Guinea during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, as well as to the writings of

. Mizuki's illustration for the ''nurikabe'' gave it a more physical and anthropomorphic form with arms and legs, rather than the more traditional invisible wall concept.

References

妖怪ドットコム『図説妖怪辞典』幻冬舎コミックス、2008年。。{{Japanese folklore long Yōkai