Koto-furunushi (Fukui)

Koto-furunushi is a tsukumogami of an old koto long used and then discarded. The figure is depicted with an old man's face, arms, and legs growing from the koto-body, playing its own strings. The figure stands as a representative early-modern instrument-yokai. The koto is a traditional Japanese instrument used in gagaku and sokyoku; the figure embodies the early-modern conceit of the long-played instrument cast off and acquiring resentment. Toriyama Sekien's Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (1784) figures the yokai with a humorous inscription. Later narratives place the figure in a storeroom or warehouse, where koto-sound is heard at midnight, or where a koto plays although no one is present. Toriyama Sekien's Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (Tenmei 4, 1784) is the principal early text; the book is the culminating early-modern compendium of tsukumogami of instruments, tools, and household goods. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database compile the figure. In Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro the instrument-tsukumogami biwa-bokuboku and suzuhiko-hime stand alongside koto-furunushi as paired figures. Early-modern kaidan collections Ehon Hyakumonogatari and Kokon Hyaku-monogatari Hyoban also include cognate instrument-yokai. Specific Fukui local records are limited.