Tenome
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Tenome (手の目, eyes of hand, or rather hand eyes) is a Japanese yōkai that appeared in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by Toriyama Sekien.[1]
Concept
They appear as a zatō (a kind of member of the blind persons' guild such as the tōdōza or a ranking of members of related groups such the Anma, moxibustion practitions, and members of the biwa hōshi, among other organizations) with both eyes not on the face, but on the palm of each hand. There is no explanatory text in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō so there are no details that can be known from it.
In the yōkai emaki, the
In the collection of kaidan, the Edo-period Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari (1677), there is the setsuwa titled "Bakemono ni Hone wo Nukareshi Hito no Koto" (ばけ物に骨をぬかれし人の事, "How a Person Had Their Bones Removed by a Monster") illustrated with a yōkai that had an eye on each hand, and this monster is thought to have been designed based on Sekien's "tenome".[5][1] This story goes as follows. Once, a man went on a trial of guts (or "test of courage") to the graveyard at Shichijogawara in Kyoto when a monster who appeared to be an old person around 80 years in age came after him, and this monster had eyeballs on each palm of the hand. The man fled into a nearby temple and after he made the monk there let him conceal himself in a nagamochi (a kind of chest), the monster chased after him, whereupon there was a sound like that of a dog sucking a bone, and after that it finally disappeared. It is said that when the monk opened up the nagamochi, the man was found to have all the bones in his body removed, his body reduced to just skin.[6]
According to the Iwate no Yōkai Monogatari by Yoshio Fujisawa, in a certain legend told in the Iwate Prefecture, there is the following tale about the tenome. A certain traveler was walking along the plains at night when a blind person approached. This blind person had an eyeball on each palm of the hand, and these eyes seemed to be looking for something. The traveler ran away out of surprise, and rushed into an inn. After telling the owner of the inn what had happened, the owner answered that in a certain place a few days ago, a blind person was killed and robbed by a scoundrel, and the blind person wanted to have at least one look at the face of those scoundrels, if not with regular eyes, at least with eyes on the hands, and this grievance led the blind person to become a "tenome" yōkai, and similarly in Echigo, it is said that a tenome had appeared after a blind man was killed.[7]
The yōkai researcher
Kurayami me
As a yōkai similar to the tenome, there is the "kurayami me" (darkness eye) written about in the yōkai explanatory book Yōkai Majin Seirei no Sekai (1977) by Norio Yamada. It states that these have eyes on the front of each knee, and they can easily walk around in the dark but often bump into things in the daytime.[8]
In popular culture
- Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del Fauno, "Faun's Labyrinth"): In the Spanish movie directed by Guillermo del Toro, the main character (Ofelia) is given a second task which consists in retrieving an ornate dagger from the lair of a character known as "the Pale Man", which resembles the Tenome.
- Release from Agony: The cover of this album by Destruction depicts a Tenome hooked up to an IV.
- Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: One of main characters, Krumm, is loosely based on the creature.
- Cuphead: One of the bosses, named Blind Specter, is inspired by one.
- The Tenome appears as a monster in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, first featured in Adventure Path #99, Hell's Rebels, part 3 of 6: Dance of the Damned.[9]
- In Skylanders, the light villain: Eye-Five is based on Tenome.
- in Demon Slayer, the demon: Yahaba is based on Tenome.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-4-620-31428-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-4-336-04187-6.
- ISBN 978-4-336-04778-6.
- ^ 乾猷平 著 『蕪村妖怪絵巻解説 附・化物づくし』 北田紫水文庫、1928年、9頁。
- ISBN 978-4-336-03386-4。
- ISBN 978-4-7790-0051-5.
- ISBN 978-4-924653-47-4.
- ^ 山室静執筆代表 (1974). 妖怪魔神精霊の世界. 自由国民社. pp. 26頁.
- ISBN 978-1-60125-788-8.