Akaname, from Japan: what it is and what people believe

A yōkai of Japanese folk belief, said to slip into old baths and dirty houses at night and lick the scum from tubs and floors with a long tongue. Its name means filth-licker, and it is known from Edo-period picture collections and later retellings.

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Named in Toriyama Sekien's illustrated yōkai collection Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, 1776
Older variant akaneburi appears in a 1686 kaidan book by Yamaoka Genrin
The name means scum-licker or filth-licker, from aka for grime and dirt
Said to enter bath areas at night and lick tubs and floors with a long tongue
Modern artists often paint it red, from a pun on aka, which also means red

What it is

Akaname is a yōkai, one of the creatures of Japanese folk belief, and belongs with household spirits rather than with a system of worship. The name translates as scum-licker or filth-licker. It is described as a small being with a long tongue, clawed feet and a cropped head. Later accounts say it creeps into bath areas at night and licks the grime left on tubs, floors and washing places, and that it does nothing else. Toriyama Sekien drew it in his 1776 collection of yōkai pictures.

Where it comes from

The name akaname appears in print in 1776, in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, an illustrated yōkai collection by Toriyama Sekien. Some commentators count that as its first appearance, but a variant name, akaneburi, carrying the same meaning, was recorded earlier, in 1686, in the kaidan (ghost-story) book Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban by Yamaoka Genrin. The form is also attested in Nittō honzō zusan, compiled by a person named Genki, presumed to be Kanda Genki. That 1686 book explains the creature's origin: it is said to form in old bathhouses or tattered, abandoned homes where dust and grime have gathered.

How it is done

Accounts describe the akaname moving at night, when people are asleep, into a bathhouse or the bath room of a house. There it runs its long tongue over the filth built up on the tub and the bathing floor. Sekien's early picture carries no written description, but Nittō honzō zusan gives a child-like figure with a pebbly head, round eyes and a long tongue, and adds anecdotes. Later literature keeps the same picture: a creature that comes to neglected washing places and licks them.

Akaname, drawn and placed

Emblem red, with the feather shape. Drawn from this page, not a photograph.

Living
Revived
Fading
Historical
Legendary
Performed

Standing: Legendary Known from myth, story and legend rather than from recorded practice. This says whether people still do it, not whether it works.

A feather: used in cleansing and blessing in some traditions, worn as a sign of office, and carried as a charm.

Lineage: Japanese yōkai
Timing: at night, while people sleep

Where it sits The tradition it belongs to, and when it is done.

What it is for

The akaname is a creature of one habit: it licks filth. Its place in the stories is less about cleaning than about noticing. Because yōkai were thought unsettling to meet, households are said to have scrubbed their baths and tubs carefully so that the creature would stay away. One line of speculation reads the tale as a warning against being so taken up with other matters that the bath is left dirty. Another ties the name to impurities of the mind in Buddhist thought.

Peoples and places

The creature belongs to Japan, and its recorded life runs from the Edo period through the Shōwa and Heisei years and after. Its settings are domestic: in Sekien's drawing, a bath in an outbuilding rather than a public bathhouse; in the earlier accounts, old or derelict houses. One anecdote places a sinister encounter at a hot spring in Banshū, that is Harima Province. Depictions shift with the period: a child-like Edo figure, blue-black skin in the 1858 Hyakushu kaibutsu yōkai sugoroku, and red in modern art.

At a glance: who, where and when

Peoples

Japanese

Belief worlds

Folk and village custom Buddhist

What people believe

Two ideas sit behind the akaname. The first is that grime itself can breed a being: Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban says the creature emanates (keshō, a term for coming into being by transformation) from the ki, or qi, energy of collected waste, or from inki, negative energy, and then feeds on the filth around it. The second is a moral reading, offered as speculation. Aka can suggest impurities or defilements of the soul, the bonnō (Sanskrit: kleshas) of Buddhist thought, and the tale may warn against letting such thoughts crowd out ordinary cleanliness. A link has also been guessed to aka, arghya in Sanskrit, water offered in Buddhist ritual.

Cautions and what is closed

A darker version of the akaneburi appears in Nittō honzō zusan. There the creature takes the form of a beautiful woman who licks away blood and flesh until only bones are left. The book gives an anecdote from a hot spring in Banshū, where a man let a woman scrub his back and was licked down to the bone and died. This is a legend of danger rather than a practice, and it is the harm the old accounts tell of.

Compare and confuse

The akaname shares its place with other spirits of the washing place. Aka Manto, "Red Cape", is a Japanese urban legend about a figure who appears in bathrooms, and Hanako-san haunts school toilets. Outside Japan, the bannik of Slavic myth is a spirit found in bathhouses. The akaname also goes by its older name akaneburi, written 垢ねぶり or 垢舐, both using the character for licking.

Today

From the Shōwa period onward the akaname was read much as before: a night visitor to old baths and dilapidated buildings. It has since moved into entertainment. A UK heavy metal band released a song named for it in 2013, and it has turned up in video games, in television episodes and in a monster-girl encyclopedia that gathered it a following. Modern artists usually paint it red, from the pun on aka. In 2020 a bath-products maker brought out an item modelled on the creature.

Questions people ask about Akaname

What is an akaname?

A yōkai, a creature of Japanese folk belief, said to live in old bathhouses and dirty houses and to lick filth from tubs and washing places with a long tongue. It is known mainly from Edo-period picture collections and later retellings.

Where does it come from?

The name is first printed in Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō of 1776. An older variant, akaneburi, appears in Yamaoka Genrin's 1686 collection Kokon hyakumonogatari hyōban, which says the creature forms from grime in old baths and ruined houses.

What does the name mean?

Aka covers dead skin, dirt, sweat and the scum left in a bathhouse, and akaname is translated as scum-licker or filth-licker. Aka is also the Japanese word for red, which is why the creature is often drawn red.

Is it dangerous?

Most accounts give it one harmless habit, licking filth. A more sinister akaneburi in Nittō honzō zusan is said to take the form of a beautiful woman and lick a man down to his bones at a hot spring. That story is told as legend.

Why keep the bath clean?

Because yōkai were thought unsettling to meet, people are said to have washed baths and tubs carefully so that the akaname would not come. The tale is also read as a warning against neglecting the bath for other thoughts.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Akaname", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryJaadu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. Names and customs differ from one community to the next, and some knowledge is closed to outsiders and left out here. This page describes belief and practice. It does not say that any of it works, it is not a how-to, and it is not medical advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-20.

Akaname