百鬼夜行とは何か――妖怪の行列は、なぜ夜の都を歩いたのか

What was the Hyakki Yagyo, really? Along the night roads, an aged kettle, a torn umbrella, and vessels that have grown faces amble by, somehow merry — the procession painted in the old picture scrolls is regarded, today, with a certain fondness. Yet to the people of the Heian period, it was a terror: those who saw it did not come back alive. The Konjaku Monogatarishu and the Okagami preserve accounts of people who met the Hyakki Yagyo in the nighttime capital and barely escaped its harm through the power of a sacred text. Why did these strange beings appear only after dark? Why did they walk not alone, but in a throng? And the procession that was supposedly sealed away inside the picture scrolls — did it truly disappear? In this episode we follow the trail: from the encounter tales of Heian-kyo, to the inauspicious days inscribed in the old calendars, to the idea of tsukumogami — discarded tools that turn into yokai — to the lineage of the picture scrolls, and at last to the "Yagyo-san" and "Shichinin Misaki" that lingered across the countryside into modern times. Along the way, we ask what the Hyakki Yagyo truly was. ▼ Chapters 00:00 That night, a procession walked the avenues of the capital 00:56 Chapter 1 — Those Who Saw It Did Not Return: The Night of the Sonsho Darani 03:47 Chapter 2 — The Capital Was a Road for the Uncanny 05:40 Chapter 3 — The Nights You Must Not Walk 07:44 Chapter 4 — Discarded Tools Join the Procession 09:23 Chapter 5 — Fear Became a Picture 11:12 Chapter 6 — And Yet, the Procession Did Not Vanish 14:27 Closing / Next Time ▼ Principal Sources ・Konjaku Monogatarishu (Tales of Times Now Past), Book 14 no. 42 and Book 24 no. 16 ・Okagami (The Great Mirror) ・Shugaisho ・Tsukumogami Emaki (citing the Onmyo Zakki) ・Hyakki Yagyo Emaki (attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu; Shinju-an collection) ・Toriyama Sekien, Gazu Hyakki Yagyo (The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons) ・The yokai paintings of Kawanabe Kyosai ・Regional folk traditions, including "Yagyo-san" and "Shichinin Misaki" ▼ Subscribe    / @tales-of-the-strange   ▼ About Tales of the Strange A channel that quietly traces the strange beings recorded in old books. Drawing on China's Shanhaijing, the yokai of Japan, the demons and angels of the West, and myths and legends from around the world, we explore them through classical sources, classical imagery, and original interpretation. New long-form videos, around 10–15 minutes each, are planned every week. ▼ About This Production This video is an explanatory work, independently composed from a range of sources and traditions. The script, narration, and editing are all produced in-house by the channel. The visuals draw chiefly on public-domain classical images, supplemented by AI-generated visuals. #HyakkiYagyo #NightParadeOfOneHundredDemons #Yokai #JapaneseYokai #Tsukumogami #JapaneseFolklore #JapaneseMythology #KonjakuMonogatari #TalesOfTheStrange