Ubaga-bi (Chiba)

Ubaga-bi is a fireball-yokai in which the face of an old woman is said to appear within the flame. Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo, "yo" volume (1776), gives the canonical figure, showing a hen-like form with the face of an old woman in the flame. The accompanying inscription supplies the legend of a woman of Kawachi who stole the lamp-oil of Hiraoka-jinja (present-day Higashi-Osaka) and was punished by transformation into a wandering flame. The fireball is said to fly low on rainy or windy nights and to cling to the umbrellas and garments of those it meets. Cases are recorded from Kawachi and Settsu across the Kanto and Tohoku, including the night-flame traditions of the Tone River basin and the Boso peninsula in Chiba where it was absorbed locally. Sources include Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo (1776), the Hiraoka-jinja origin traditions, the miscellany Kasshi Yawa, Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005), and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database.