TSUKUMOGAMI

 Today we're going to talk about tsukumogami.

 

In Japanese, the word "tsukumo" refers to the number 99, which is one short of 100,
and is used to mean "a very long time" or "a very large number".

Tsukumogami is one of the legends that has been passed down in Japan.
It is a yokai (monster) that is said to be a spirit that inhabits old tools that have been used for a long time and does evil things,
and it appears in the picture scroll "Tsukumogami Emaki" written in the Muromachi period.

During the Muromachi period, people in Japan believed that furniture, trays, bowls and other tools and furnishings would become yokai after 100 years of use, and so people would throw many of these tools out on the street before the beginning of spring.

All of these discarded tools became angry and turned into yokai called tsukumogami, who then staged a revolt on the night of Setsubun.
The monsters attack and annoy people, but they are disciplined by the monks. After that, the monsters become monks, accumulate training, and become enlightened.

In Japan, there have been many monsters that take care of tools since ancient times, and if you look for them, you will find countless stories and picture scrolls featuring monsters with stoves on their heads, monsters with arms and legs attached to rice cake pounding mallets, monsters with tubs for faces, and so on.

Of course, old tools do not have souls, but this way of giving tools a personality and turning various things into spirits is a concept that can only be found in Japan, where there are gods of "yaoyorozu".