요괴 일반 공모
디자인 부문 입상작 발표

Fukui City, Fukui
Koichi Matsuda

A yokai who teaches children shogi. For all its love of the game, it has never once won. Attacked with the drunken elephant, it immediately cries "Wa- wait!" When it runs out of moves it says "Oh dear..." and when it is put in check it says "Oh no!" and turns first pale, then red.

Fukui City, Fukui
Haruka Uno

A yokai in the form of a little girl, who calls out "Come under my umbrella" to people sheltering from the rain in the castle town. She appears in the rainy season, when the hydrangeas bloom in Ichijodani. Refuse her umbrella and water-related misfortune follows: you step in a puddle, the ceiling starts to leak. Accept, and she will see you home.

Year 5, Ichijo Primary School, Fukui City
Haruki Hosoda

The yokai of the wells at the Asakura ruins. When it rains, it shelters living things from the rain. The villagers were grateful, and a spirit formed out of that gratitude. It is always watching over everyone.

Inagi, Tokyo
Mizue Ito

A crow yokai that came and went from the residence of the Asakura lord. It lived in the Eiroku era, when shogi was played with the "Asakura koma" pieces. Long ago, watching the samurai play shogi from the eaves, it longed to play itself - and so it became a yokai. Today it slips through the dark to the homes of children who stay up late, teaching them shogi and challenging them to a game. It favours shogi played with the drunken elephant, uncommon in the modern game, and spreads the word among the children. It cannot resist anything that glitters, and wears its favourite glass beads about its body. It is a formidable player and shows no mercy, child or not. To any child who gives it a good game, it presents one of the glass beads it wears.

모델: Shogi pieces and glass beads excavated from the site

Wakayama City, Wakayama
Tsukasa Miyamura

A lively, mischievous yokai. Adores wagashi. A yokai that ran through the Sengoku era; nothing pleases it more than settling into a sword. It travelled with its owner, and has wandered alone since their death. It seems to have companions, but they have been scattered. Endlessly curious, it is always running about. It can change size freely, up to about 130 cm, and has the form of a boy.

Year 2, Meido Junior High School, Fukui City
Kanato Takekoshi

A yokai that has possessed the Karamon gate. It is the head of all Ichijodani and the strongest in sorcery of any yokai. It rarely shows itself to people.

Year 6, Ichijo Primary School, Fukui City
Atsuto Kobayashi

In the mornings it plays around the Karamon gate. To sleep it returns to Kamido. It watches over everyone without ever being noticed. Its spirit formed out of a wish to protect them all. When enemies come, it stands its ground.

Inuyama, Aichi
Junya Ishida

A yokai that once quietly kept the gardens of the castle town beautiful. These days it runs a flower shop in the castle town said to lie underground. It still puts its old skills to use as a gardener, and while tending flower beds or building gardens it often digs up relics of the castle town that once stood above - some of which become yokai in the act of being unearthed. Each time, the castle town grows livelier, so nobody minds; but there is a rumour that it is "really a yokai that makes yokai." The branch on its head changes with the seasons, flowering with cherry blossom in spring. When the cherries bloom it falls strongly under Hanamaru's influence, and is apparently a great deal of trouble to keep tidy.

Echizen, Fukui
Yoshiyuki Kohigashi

Eat a snack alone and a voice comes from nowhere: "Kenarui. Kenarui." That is the yokai's voice, and you must not answer it. Legend has it that a child who once answered "You shan't have any" found the yokai before them, and lost the snack. Note: kenarui is Fukui dialect for "I'm envious."

Tsuruga, Fukui
Kazunori Nishimura

Night after night it stands there looking exactly like the Karamon gate. Mistake it for the real thing and pass through, and you are thrown back in time to the Sengoku era. Watching people reel at the shock, it breaks into a cheerfully eerie song: "Karakara-monmon, karamonmon!"

Sapporo, Hokkaido
Satoshi Kokorotenchi

What's the trouble? Short of the coins you had in your purse? That'll be the Koshiginchaku's doing. Jingle your coins about and before you know it there it is, hanging at your hip - helping itself to a little something. That's the Koshiginchaku for you.

Joso, Ibaraki
Ruka Nakayama

A yokai that pilfers things. It likes what is beautiful and vivid, and steals it. Seen by a human, it vanishes, so it moves at night. It often slips into wealthy houses, and lives in old, tumbledown ones. Sometimes a gold coin turns up in a poor household - and so it is said to bring good fortune, and some people call it Okusune-sama.

Mitaka, Tokyo
Ryo Teshigawara

She was originally a wind chime hanging at the Asakura residence. If you catch a gentle breeze and the sound of a wind chime as you walk through the town, that is her doing. In a summer she visits, the greenery grows well and the town prospers. Her favourite place is the garden of the Asakura residence.

Year 6, Ichijo Primary School, Fukui City
Kaito Yoshida

I drew him thinking of the autumn leaves of Ichijodani, and coloured him in the colours they were at the time; I imagined his clothes the same way. He appears if you look to your side while watching the autumn leaves of Ichijodani. As autumn approaches, the colour of his clothes and hair changes. He makes nutrients.

Fukuoka City, Fukuoka
Mikoto Kimura

He appears while you are dieting, especially in the middle of the night, and takes hold of you. He has you open the fridge without thinking, reach for the snacks you know you should not, eat until you are full when you had firmly decided to stop at eighty per cent - and he feeds on the guilt this brings. A thoroughly villainous yokai. When you give in to the temptation of food, Kufuku-Mashitaro may well be beside you, laughing. He looks rather like Kintaro. The rucksack on his back is crammed with food and with human guilt. His catchphrases: "Eat it," "There's more," "Delicious."