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No.019

Nurikabe

THE INVISIBLE WALL

Nurikabe
Pixel artOriginal art by Pixel Yokai
"Nurikabe" from Bakemono no e (Brigham Young University)
For reference: old artUnknown artist
"Nurikabe" from Bakemono no e (Brigham Young University)
Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
Japanese name
ぬりかべ（NURIKABE）
Type
Road spirit
Found in
Night roads and seaside paths
Where the legend lives
  • Fukuoka — Recorded as a yokai of the seaside in Onga District, in the old province of Chikuzen

◆ The legend

A yokai told of along the coast of Onga District in Fukuoka Prefecture. You are walking down a road at night when, all of a sudden, the way ahead turns into something like a wall, and you cannot go on in any direction. People there called this "nurikabe," the plastered wall, and are said to have feared it.

The old tales say almost nothing about what the nurikabe looks like. Its color, its size, whether it even has a face: all unknown. What remains is only the experience of not being let through, and the name given to it. It became widely known after the folklorist Kunio Yanagita included it among the yokai names he gathered from around Japan.

◆ Stories about this yokai

The Nurikabe Has No Shape: The Invisible Wall That Blocks the Night RoadTold of along the coast of Onga District in Fukuoka, the nurikabe is an invisible wall that suddenly stops you on a night road. The old tales say almost nothing about how it looks. Here's how to make it vanish, and a look at yokai named for an experience rather than a shape.