Зашики-вараси: Духи-хранители благополучия в японском фольклоре.

Japanese folklore spirit beings

, sometimes also called (座敷ぼっこ), are spirit like beings told about mostly in the Iwate Prefecture. They are said to be yokai that live in parlors or storage rooms, and that perform pranks, and that people who see one would be visited with good fortune. There are also legends of how they would bring fortune to families. They are also known from Kunio Yanagita's Tōno Monogatari, Ishigami Mondō, and stories about them appear in the 17th and 18th chapters of the Tōno Monogatari and the 87th chapter titled "Zashiki warashi" of the Tōno Monogatari Shūi. In the 17th chapter, it is written "families with whom this spirit dwells become prosperous" (kono kami no yadoritamafu ihe ha fūki jizai nari to ifu koto nari). In recent years, television programs and magazines have reported about various Iwate Prefecture ryokan where it is said to be possible to see a zashiki warashi.

Reports have mostly been in the Iwate Prefecture, but there are also some scattered across Aomori Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Akita Prefecture and others in the Tōhoku region. Generally, the beings have a red face, hair that hangs down, and aged from a minimum of around three years to a maximum of around 15 years. They have a bob haircut or very short cropped hair. Both males and females have been seen. The male ones are said to wear blackish clothes with a kasuri pattern and the females are said to wear a red waistcoat (chanchanko), kosode, and sometimes a furisode. In Gonohe, Aomori Prefecture, there is a legend of how when a new house is built, a zashiki warashi can be called into it by burying a golden ball under the floors. There are theories about how they cannot be seen by anyone other than members of the family or how they can only be seen by children but not adults. There are stories about how when adults counted children, there would be one more person than there was originally, but as adults do not understand what zashiki warashi are, they would not know who the extra person is. Stories like these frequently appear as themes in literature.

An example of a very characteristic folk belief is that families with a zashiki warashi would prosper and families whose zashiki warashi have gone away would decline. This aspect shows that zashiki warashi are like gods of fortune or protective spirits that rule over a family's prosperity and decline. In the Tōno Monogatari, there are tales such as one telling about how a family was wiped out by foodborne illness after its zashiki warashi left it and another tale about how in the Iide section of the village of Tsuchibuchi, Iwate Prefecture (now part of the city of Tōno), a wealthy family's zashiki warashi was shot by a child with a bow and arrow causing it to leave the family, resulting in the family's fortunes decline. There is also the view that the way families would decline after a zashiki warashi leaves it and the way families would prosper after a binbōgami leaves it are related. There is the theory that a white zashiki warashi is a sign of good things to come and the sight of a red one (with a red face, red clothes, and a red bucket in its hands) is a sign that a zashiki warashi would leave the family leading to bad things to come. There are also examples where a family that saw a red clothed one all died from foodborne illness.

Zashiki warashi are there in inner guest rooms (zashiki), and their existence is said to have an effect on the direction the family goes in, so there are some families that treat them hospitably and offer them meals every day. They are said to like azuki meshi, so there are families that offer some azuki meshi every day, and if it is not eaten, it is said to be an omen for the family's decline. but the literary researcher Sukeyuki Miura surmises that perhaps this room was used to give worship to the god's protective spirit. Among these, there are some that have no influence on the family's fortunes and instead merely move around the house making noises, and there are not merely a few that have been deemed creepy. It has also been interpreted to be a spirit of this Mada no Ki. Despite there being many legends of the zashiki warashi in the Tōhoku region, there are fewer in Akita Prefecture; this is said to be because Akita has the sankichi oni, so lower class yōkai would not enter Akita. In the Tōhoku region, infanticide was called usugoro (臼殺, or "mortar kill"), and it is said that children who were killed this way to reduce the number of mouths to feed would be killed by being crushed by a stone mortar. Afterwards, burying them in the dirt floor room (doma) or in the kitchen was a custom. It is said that the spirits of such children would, on rainy days, walk around outer edges, shaking and frightening the guests, which is said to be seen to resemble deeds similar to that of a zashiki warashi. as well as the theory that the appearance of a child embodies divinity.

To the people of Tōhoku, the zashiki warashi was certainly not a legend that came around after the war, and tales of zashiki warashi were told even in the times of Meiji, Shōwa, and beyond. According to Kunio Yanagita's Yōkai Dangi (妖怪談義), it is said that in the year 1910 or Meiji 43 around the month of July, in the village of Tsuchibuchi (now Tōno, Iwate Prefecture) in Kamihei District, Rikuchū, a zashiki warashi appeared at a school that was visible only to the first year students and not to the older students and adults. Certain ryokan that have continued to be managed in the Shōwa and Heisei periods and beyond such as the Ryokufūsō at the Kindaichi Onsen in Iwate Prefecture, the Sugawara Bekkan, and the Warabe both in Tenjin village in Morioka Prefecture are known to be lodges where a zashiki warashi dwells; there have been tales of guests who saw zashiki warashi, heard footsteps, were physically touched. and it is said to have followed this proprietress when she married into the family of this establishment. There have also been tales about how guests to this ryokan have been successful in their marriage and jobs.

In the animated series Mononoke, zashiki warashi were represented by the spirits of babies that were forcefully aborted in a brothel and then stored in the walls so the mothers would be able to keep taking clients. In the animated series A Centaur's Life, zashiki warashi was represented by a small child that played with Sue Mitama, the younger sister of Manami Mitama. In the manga and animated series Kimi ni Todoke, the main character, Sawako Kuronuma, is given the nickname “zashiki warashi” by her cousin because of her ominous physical appearance. In the video game Onmyōji, one of the first Shikigami you can meet is called Zashiki and represents a zashiki warashi, being said to bring wealth and good fortune to her host. Zashiki warashi is a prominent secondary character in the manga and anime series xxxHolic. In the 18th episode of Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, the Mushroom Child a zashiki warashi whom the Kakurangers and the children befriend. In the 45th episode of Engine Sentai Go onger, the Go ongers and Go on Wings meet a zashiki warashi in a hotel room. In the manga Interviews with Monster Girls, a zashiki warashi stays at the apartment of college student Yoko Takahashi, who is revealed to be a spirit medium and is the only one that can perceive her in any direct or indirect way. The spirit, a young girl, is named Zashiko. In the manga and its later anime adaptation Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, the housekeeper of the inn the protagonist stays in, Ms. Nakai, is a Zashiki warashi. In the video game and anime series Yo Kai Watch, the zashiki warashi is a common yokai of the Heartful tribe who specializes in healing abilities. It has an evolution named Zashiki warashin. For the English release, they were named Gnomey and High Gnomey. In the 2012 Japanese family drama movie Home: Itoshi no Zashiki Warashi directed by Seiji Izumi, shows the spirit of a little 5 years old girl who is a Zashiki Warashi living in a rural house where the Takahashi family from Tokyo city moves into. The Takahashi family suffers from internal disputes within the family members and no happiness seems to be among them. The Zashiki Warashi enters into their lives and brings happiness for them, fixing all the broken bonds within the family and the spirit herself becoming a member of their family. Miyoi Okunoda, the protagonist of the official Touhou Project manga, Touhou Suichoka ~ Lotus Eaters, is a zashiki warashi with the ability to manipulate memories. A Zashiki Warashi named Osoma can be seen in the anime Osomatsu san, season two, chapter 18. The anime's protagonist plays Osoma as a Zashiki Warashi who scares people who visit the hut of her "mother" Choroe, telling them the story that she was supposedly killed by his own mother many years ago. In The House of the Lost on the Cape the zashiki warashi play a crucial role in helping the three main characters restore hope to a region devastated by a tsunami.