Mokumokuren (Shizuoka)

Mokumokuren is a household entity that makes many eyes appear on the paper screens and sliding doors of an unoccupied house. In an empty home, an eye appears in each square of the shoji lattice, and the eyes look out at travelers or temporary lodgers at midnight. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (Anei 8, 1779) depicts "Mokumokuren" with countless eyes ranged go-board-like on the paper of a ruined house. The text suggests origins such as the gathered thought of one absorbed in playing go, or the lingering attachment of a go-player to an abandoned house. Later picture-books and essays gave the figure narrative form as an entity met by night travelers or visitors of ruined homes. Sekien's book is the source; analogous tales of eyes appearing on shoji and fusuma are scattered in Edo essays and kaidan. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database organize the tradition.