What is the keukegen?
The keukegen is a small, hairy yokai covered all over in long hair. It is drawn in Toriyama Sekien’s Edo-period yokai book Konjaku Hyakki Shui, so thickly covered in hair that you cannot tell where its face, arms or legs are.
Meaning of the name
Sekien explained that the name can also be written with characters meaning “rare and rarely appearing,” showing that it is a yokai that seldom shows itself to people. The name is thought to combine two meanings: its thick, fluffy hair, and its rarity.
A yokai of damp and sickness
The keukegen is said to like damp, humid places and to settle under floors and around wells. A house where a keukegen lived was thought to have sick people. It may carry the everyday wisdom of people in the past that damp houses are bad for health.
