Keukegen (Gifu)

Keukegen is a small round yokai entirely covered in long hair, said to lurk in damp places under the floor, by the well, or in a corner of the garden, and to bring illness to the household. The name is a play on "keuke-gen" (rare and seldom seen), and not being seen is treated as the essence of the figure. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779) figures the yokai as a hairy, beastlike round form; the inscription glosses the name as a play on "keuke" and "ke-gen" (rarely encountered). The canonical narrative places the figure beneath the floor or in damp corners of the house, where its presence is said to bring continued illness and misfortune; the figure stands within the early-modern house-yokai lineage. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (Anei 8, 1779) is the principal early text. Modern folk studies in the Yanagita Kunio lineage treat cases of house-yokai and household-curses; Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) sets out an independent entry, and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database also records the figure. Adjacent damp-place yokai include kawa-akago and akaname. Within the house-yokai lineage the figure stands opposite the prosperity-bringing zashiki-warashi: keukegen symbolises decline and illness, the negative shadow of the house. Specific Gifu local records are limited.