Biwa-bokuboku (Ishikawa)

Biwa-bokuboku is a tsukumogami (artifact entity) dwelling in a biwa lute used for many years. The figure is shown as an aged priest-like body with a biwa for a head, or as a biwa with limbs of its own that plays itself. Toriyama Sekien's Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (Tenmei 4, 1784) depicts the form with text referencing the famed biwa names Genjo and Bokuba from Taiheiki, suggesting that an instrument of long pedigree had aged into an entity. The figure is told in the pattern of a biwa heard playing at a deserted court or temple, or an abandoned biwa sounding by itself. Konjaku Monogatari-shu, scroll 24, "The Tale of the Demon Who Took the Biwa Genjo," provides an old layer connecting biwa and the uncanny. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database organize the tradition.