Kokago-bi (Saitama)

Kokago-bi is a strange flame said to burn within an old hanging lantern. From a discarded, decaying lantern, a pale blue flame is said to rise at midnight and burn on without anyone refilling the oil. The figure stands at the border of strange flame and tsukumogami in the early-modern figural tradition. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779) figures the yokai with a black-cloud-rising demon-face flame from a hanging lantern; the inscription glosses the figure as an old lantern that after long burning emits a strange flame. The canonical narrative describes the phenomenon of an old garden lantern at a temple or estate lighting alone at night, told as the doing of this yokai. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (Anei 8, 1779) is the principal early text; the book is an important source-collection of strange-flame, water, and ruin yokai of the early modern figural tradition. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the Nichibunken Strange Phenomena and Yokai Folklore Database compile the figure. Adjacent strange-flame figures include aosagi-bi, ubaga-bi, and kitsunebi. The dual character of a tsukumogami that also emits a flame is shared with narukama and gotoku-neko. Specific Saitama local records are limited.