What is a karakasa-kozo?
The karakasa-kozo is a yokai born from an old oil-paper umbrella. It is also called karakasa-obake or kasa-obake. It is familiar as an umbrella with a large single eye in the middle, a long tongue sticking out of its mouth, and its handle turned into a single leg on which it hops along.
A classic tsukumogami
The karakasa-kozo is the best-known example of the tsukumogami, tools that become yokai after a spirit settles in them through long years of use. An umbrella yokai already appears in the Muromachi-period Night Parade of a Hundred Demons picture scroll. In the Edo period it often appeared in children’s toy prints, card games and kabuki props, and became widely loved.
A popular yokai with few legends
Though everyone knows the karakasa-kozo, almost no specific legends survive about where it appeared or what mischief it did. A humorous, harmless yokai that only startles people, it has been enjoyed mainly in pictures and games, more of a character than a creature of folklore. It remains a staple of haunted houses and of yokai manga and anime today.
