Noppera-bō

The or 野箆坊, or faceless ghost, is a Japanese yōkai that looks like a human but has no face. They are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a '' mujina'', an old Japanese word for a badger or raccoon dog. Although the ''mujina'' can assume the form of the other, ''noppera-bō'' are usually disguised as humans. Such creatures were thought to sometimes transform themselves into ''noppera-bō'' in order to frighten humans. Lafcadio Hearn used the animals' name as the title of his story about faceless monsters, probably resulting in the misused terminology.

''Noppera-bō'' are known primarily for frightening humans, but are usually otherwise harmless. They appear at first as ordinary human beings, sometimes impersonating someone familiar to the victim, before causing their features to disappear, leaving a blank, smooth sheet of skin where their face should be.

In literature and folktales

Often, a ''noppera-bō'' would not actually exist, but was the disguise of a '' mujina'', a fox '' kitsune'', or a '' tanuki''. In Showa 4 (1767), in the '' kaidan'' collection ''Shinsetsu Hyakumonogatari'', there were stories that told of how in Nijugawara in Kyoto (near the Nijo-ohashi bridge in the Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto), a monster called ''noppera-bō'' appeared and those that were attacked by it would have several thick hairs attached to their clothing, indicating that it was the disguise of some kind of animal. However, sometimes their real identity is not known, and in the Kanbun 3 (1663) kaidan collection ''Sorori Monogatari'', it was written that in the Oike-cho of the capital (now Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto), there appeared a ''noppera-bō'' with a height of about 7 shaku (about 2.1 meters), but nothing was written about what its true identity was. They are also said to appear in folktales in the Osaka Prefecture and Kotonami, Nakatado District, Kagawa Prefecture among other places.

The ''Mujina'' of the Akasaka Road

The most famous story of a ''noppera-bō'' is "Mujina" in Lafcadio Hearn's book '' Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things''. The story tells of a man who, travelling along the Akasaka road to Edo, comes across a young woman in a remote location near Kunizaka hill, crying and forlorn. After he attempts to console the young woman and offer assistance, she turns to face him, startling him with the blank countenance of a faceless ghost. Frightened, the man proceeds down the road for some time, until he comes across a soba vendor. Stopping to relax, the man tells the vendor of his encounter, only to recoil in horror as the soba vendor strokes his face, becoming a ''noppera-bō'' himself. It turns out that all of these ''noppera-bō'' are really just '' mujina'' in disguise.

See also

* Faceless (disambiguation)
* Kiyomi Haunterly, a Japanese faceless ghost in '' Monster High''
* '' Kuchisake-onna'' ("Slit Mouth Woman"), a Japanese urban legend about a disfigured woman
* '' Spirited Away'', a 2001 Japanese animated film featuring a character known as "NoFace"

References

External links

Noppera-bo (No Face) at ScaryForKids


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051118074041/http://www.k-i-a.or.jp/main/kiaeigopage/KaidanPage/articles/Kwaidan.htm Discussion of the confusion of terms brought about by the titles of Hearn's stories.
{{Japanese folklore long

Japanese bathroom ghosts
Japanese legendary creatures
Legendary creatures with absent body parts
Mythic humanoids
Mythological creatures
Shapeshifters
Yōkai