Akaname

The word aka refers to dead skin on a person's body,^[2] alongside the dirt, grime, or sweat^[2] that may be scrubbed or washed off; the aka can also refer to scum that accumulates at the bathhouse as a result, including perhaps mildew.^[4][a]

Hence the name akaname means 'scum-licker'^[2] or 'filth-licker".^[4]

There is speculation whether aka alludes to impurities or defilements of the soul, or negative thoughts known in Buddhism as bonnō (Sankskrit: kleshas), and the yōkai may serve as warning not to be so preoccupied with such thoughts as to be derelict in the chores of cleansing the bath of such filth.^[5] Another speculation is a possible connection to the sacred water used as offering in Buddhism, known as aka (閼伽) water, or in Sanskrit, arghya [ja].^[2]

The name akaname ("filth-licker", "scum-licker") first appeared in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776), one of several illustrated yōkai collections by Toriyama Sekien according to some commentators,^[2] however, the variant name akaneburi (垢ねぶり) with the same meaning was described earlier in the kaidan book Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban (古今百物語評判) (1686) by Yamaoka Genrin [ja].^[5][7][11] The form akaneburi (垢舐) is also attested in a work called Nittō honzō zusan (日東本草図纂) compiled by Genki (presumably Kanda Genki).^[6][7]

Sekien did not provide any verbal details regarding his akaname, as was the case in all the yōkai depicted in this particular early work of his.^[2] However, the Nittō honzō zusan provided ample details, describing it as child-like, with a pebbly? (磊直) head, round eyes, long tongue, and several example anecdotes are also provided.^[b][6][7] In classical Edo Period depictions the akaname resembles a human child with clawed feet and cropped heads, sticking out its long tongue at a bathing area.^[12] In Sekien's (monochrome) drawing the akaname stands around the corner of a "bathhouse",^[2] though the setting appears to be a bath housed in an outhouse separated from the main house (living quarters),^[4][13] rather than a public bathhouse. In the Hyakushu kaibutsu yōkai sugoroku (1858), it is depicted as an eerie, blue-black skinned figure.^[5]

The Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban gives lecture on how the akaneburi originates, supposedly it spawns in an area where dust and grime/filth/scum (aka) at an old bathhouse or at a derelict tattered home. That is to say, the akaname was said to emanate (keshō 化生) from the ki (気; qi) energy or inki (陰気) negative energy of the accumulated detritus, and the akaneburi also subsists on eating the filth of its environs.^{[11][2][7][5][c]}

A more sinister type of akaneburi which assumes the guise of a beautiful woman is also described in the entry in Nittō honzō zusan, and it is claimed she will lick away the blood and flesh until only the skeletal carcass remains. The work gives as example the anecdote concerning a man who was in the hot springs at Banshū (Harima Province), and when he allowed a woman to scrub his back, he was licked down to his bones and died.^[6][14][d]

In literature about yōkai from the periods of Shōwa, Heisei, and beyond, akaname and akaneburi were interpreted the same way as above. These interpretations state that the akaname is a yōkai that lives in old bathhouses and dilapidated buildings^[15] that would sneak into places at night when people are asleep^[15] using its long tongue to lick the filth and grime sticking to bath places and bathtubs.^[4][16][17] It does not do anything other than lick filth, but since yōkai were considered unsettling to encounter, it is said that people worked hard to ensure that the bath places and bathtubs are washed clean so that the akaname wouldn't come.^[4][16][18]

There were none who saw what the akaname truly were, but since aka can remind people of the color red (aka in Japanese), they are said to have red faces^[16] or be entirely red.^[17] And due to the double entendre pun on aka which can refer to both the filth which is the yōkai's essence and to the color red, a (modern) artist tends to conventionally illustrate the akaname as being of red color.^[4]

In 2020, Lush released a bubble bar named for and modeled after the creatures.^[19][20]

• Aka Manto ("Red Cape"), a Japanese urban legend about a spirit which appears in bathrooms
• Bannik, a spirit which appears in bathhouses in Slavic mythology
• Hanako-san, a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl who haunts school bathrooms
• Madam Koi Koi, an African urban legend about the ghost of a woman who haunts a school
• Teke Teke, a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a girl with no lower body

Citations

Bibliography cited