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Ungaikyō

Ungaikyo from the Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro by Toriyama Sekien

The ungaikyō (雲外鏡、うんがいきょう, "mirror beyond the clouds") is a yōkai in Japanese mythology depicted in the Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, a collection of yōkai paintings by the Edo period ukiyo-e artist Toriyma Sekien.

In modern media they are often depicted as a tsukumogami in the form of a possessed mirror, where they have characteristics such as: manipulating people's reflections to resemble what they prefer, transforming any human who looks into the ungaikyō into a monstrous version of themselves as the reflection shown, or (for a human to use) to trap spirits in them.

Mythology

Sekiken depicts a mirror[1] with a face standing behind a slanting column and a tongue protruding from it, which is described in the side notes in Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro as follows.

That called the shomakyo (照魔鏡, lit. "illuminate occult mirror") reflects the forms of many mysterious things, and as its shadow is reflect, when it moves I figured it was this mirror's yokai, or so I thought in a dream.[2]

The shomakyo is a legendary mirror that is said to reveal the true identity of demons. The reading-book (yomihon) Ehon Sangoku Yofuden by Takai Ranzan notes it to have revealed the true identity of the beautiful woman Daji who corrupted the Shang emperor King Zhou.[3] The ungaikyō in Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro is noted to be an original creation of Sekien Toriyama based on the shomakyo,[4][5] and the accompanying picture shows it to be a mirror with a monstrous and mysterious face floating on it,[6] as can be seen in the figure.

Books on yōkai since the Heisei era and beyond often consider it to be a tsukumogami (a yōkai transformed from a vessel) of a mirror that has become over a hundred years old, which offer varying interpretations on what it does, ranging from it reflecting one's own face in the mirror but transforming into a yōkai[6] or a vessel that the yokai reflected in the shomakyo.[6] The name “ungaikyo” is noted to possibly be a reference to the Chinese geography book Shanhai Jing Classic of Mountains and Seas, which describes a number of yokai.[7]

The mirror monster

In a book written by yokai manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, there is a legend that on the fifteenth night of the eighth month (Hazuki) of the lunar calendar, a crystal tray is filled with water under the moonlight, and when the water is used to draw the image of a yōkai on the mirror's surface, that yōkai will then dwell inside the mirror.[8][9]

A disguised raccoon dog

The ungaikyo in the 1968 film “The Great Yōkai War” (Daiei) is designed as a yōkai in the shape of a raccoon dog. It has the ability to inhale and puff out its belly to project images of various places like a television set, and it uses this ability in the film as well.[10]

In many yōkai illustrated books for children since the Showa period (1926-1989), it is often described as a yōkai that looks like a raccoon dog with a mirror on its belly, or as being able to project various things onto its own body.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ 諸橋轍次『大漢和辞典』7巻 大修館書店
  2. ^ 稲田篤信; 田中直日, eds. (1992). 鳥山石燕 画図百鬼夜行. 高田衛監修. 国書刊行会. p. 312. ISBN 978-4-336-03386-4.
  3. ^ 多田克己 (2005). "絵解き 画図百鬼夜行の妖怪". 怪. カドカワムック. Vol. 0018. 角川書店. p. 390. ISBN 978-4-04-883912-9.
  4. ^ a b 村上 2005, p. 52
  5. ^ 田神健一他, ed. (2006). アニメ版 ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 完全読本. 講談社. p. 51. ISBN 978-4-06-213742-3.
  6. ^ a b c 草野 1997, p. 49
  7. ^ 妖怪ドットコム 2008, p. 113
  8. ^ 水木しげる (2014). 決定版 日本妖怪大全 妖怪・あの世・神様. 講談社（講談社文庫）. p. 115. ISBN 978-4-062-77602-8.
  9. ^ 水木しげる (1984). 水木しげるの妖怪文庫. 河出文庫. Vol. 2. 河出書房新社. p. 145. ISBN 978-4-309-47056-6.
  10. ^ 甦れ！妖怪映画大集合. 竹書房（BAMBOO MOOK）. 2005. p. 72. ISBN 978-4-81242-265-6.

References

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