Konaki-jiji
{{Short description|Yōkai}}
{{use dmy dates |date=April 2022}}
Konaki-jiji (子泣き爺, Konaki-Jijī, translated into Old man crying) is a kind of Japanese yōkai, a supernatural spirit in Japanese folklore. It is similar to the Scandinavian myling, the Slavic poroniec and the Germanic Aufhocker
Description
The Konaki-jiji is said to be able to take the appearance of an old man or a baby.{{cite news | last = Baker | first = Tom | title = A procession of countless demons; From animated trash to sharp-toothed education mamas, there's a yokai for everything | newspaper = The Daily Yomiuri | pages = 9 | date = December 24, 2010 }}{{cite news | last = Kan | first = Saori | title = TV's 'Kitaro' turns 40 | newspaper = The Daily Yomiuri | pages = 12 | date = January 18, 2008 }} In either case, the spirit lures an unwary passerby towards it and allows him or her to pick it up. After the spirit is picked up, it suddenly becomes a heavy stone that crushes the victim to death. In some versions of Konaki-jiji stories, the spirit is that of a baby left to die in the wilderness.{{cite encyclopedia | title = Konakijiji | encyclopedia = Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | pages = 369 | publisher = Harper Collins | date = 2006 }}
The Konaki-jiji can be traced back to family records in Shikoku where the term was used to describe an old man who sounded like a child when he cried.{{cite book|author=Frenchy Lunning|title=Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FM9Y5EKSOakC&pg=PA27|access-date=28 October 2011|date=5 November 2008|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-5482-6|pages=27–}} The term was eventually used in a national encyclopedia of yōkai and became a nationally known phenomenon.
In popular culture
In the manga series Dandadan, the spirit known as onbusuman is based on the Konaki-jiji. In the manga it appears as a creature with the large head of an old man, the shell of a turtle, the arms and legs of an infant and a long hairy tail.{{Cite web |title=[第124話]ダンダダン - 龍幸伸 |url=https://shonenjumpplus.com/episode/14079602755280966766 |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=少年ジャンプ＋ |language=ja}}