No.051

Tenjoname

THE CEILING LICKER

For reference: old artToriyama Sekien（1784）
"Tenjo-name" from Hyakki Tsurezurebukuro
Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)

Japanese name: 天井嘗（TENJONAME）
Type: Household spirit
Found in: High ceilings of old mansions

◆ The legend

A lanky, very tall yokai said to lick the high ceilings of old mansions with its long tongue on nights when no one is around. The dark stains left on the ceiling, people say, are the marks of its licking. It never comes after anyone - you simply notice, one day, that the marks are there. A quiet sort of yokai.

The tenjoname, too, became known after the Edo-period artist Toriyama Sekien drew it in one of his books of yokai pictures: a figure tall enough to reach the ceiling, stretching its tongue upward. Perhaps, looking up into the dark corners of a ceiling where the candlelight couldn't reach, people of the past felt that something might be up there.

◆ Stories about this yokai

November 2, 2026Who Left That Stain on the Ceiling? The Tenjoname and the Dark Above UsDark stains on the ceiling, people say, are where a tenjoname licked. A gentle look at giving a name to stains no one can explain, the darkness and winter chill of a high ceiling, and the faces we see in the wood grain when we look up from our futon.