What is the shirokari?
The shirokari (shiro-ukari) is a yokai drawn in Edo-period yokai picture scrolls. It has a long, slender white body with a long, trailing lower half and a human-like face.
The shirokari in yokai scrolls
The shirokari appears in several Edo-period yokai scrolls, including a Hyakki Yagyo scroll by a Kano-school painter, the Hyaku Monogatari Bakemono Emaki of 1780 and the Bakemono Zukushi Jo. In some scrolls the end of its body is blurred, so its whole form is not clear. But every scroll gives only its name and picture, with no explanation of what mischief it does.
A yokai of absent-mindedness?
In modern times, an interpretation arose that “ukari” means ukkari (carelessly), and the shirokari came to be explained as a yokai that makes those it possesses dazed and careless, until everything feels like too much trouble. It is not unusual for later generations to add personalities to yokai of which only a name and picture remain. It is a mysterious white yokai.
