What is the hakutaku?
The hakutaku (Bai Ze in Chinese) is a sacred beast of ancient Chinese tradition. With an ox-like body and a human face, it speaks human language and knows all things in the world. It was considered an auspicious creature that appears in an age ruled by a virtuous sovereign.
The Yellow Emperor and the hakutaku
When the legendary Chinese ruler the Yellow Emperor was touring the east, he met the hakutaku on the seashore. It told him the names, forms and ways to ward off the harm of 11,520 kinds of yokai and demons in the world. The Yellow Emperor had them drawn and spread among the people so they could protect themselves from calamity, it is said. The hakutaku can thus be seen as a kind of ancestor of the yokai encyclopedia, a giver of knowledge about yokai.
The hakutaku in Japan and protection from evil
In Japan, pictures of the hakutaku spread in the Edo period as charms against illness and disaster, carried on journeys for protection or displayed at home. The Japanese hakutaku is often depicted with nine eyes, three on its face and three on each side of its body, and it appears in Toriyama Sekien’s yokai books. It is sometimes presented alongside Amabie, the yokai known for warding off epidemics.
