Amazake-babaa

What it is

Amazake-babaa is an old woman among the yōkai, the spirits and strange creatures of Japanese storytelling. Her tale is told in Miyagi and Aomori prefectures in the north of Japan. Amazake is a sweet rice drink, and she is said to go from door to door after dark, asking in a child's voice whether anyone has some to give. The danger lies in replying: a person who answers is believed to fall ill, with smallpox or an ordinary cold. Because of this, she was once honoured as the goddess of smallpox in the years when the disease swept Japan. Families set cedar at their entrances and mothers make offerings to her, hoping she will spare their children. In one Tokyo district, the figure is instead a local amazake-seller who died of a cold and was later honoured as a guardian of children against sickness.

Where it comes from

The legend belongs to northern Japan, specifically Miyagi and Aomori prefectures, and a close cousin appears in Yamanashi. She was regarded as the goddess of smallpox during the years when that disease was widespread across the country. In the Kohinata district of Bunkyo City, Tokyo, the story took a different shape. There the figure is remembered as a real neighbourhood amazake-seller who died of a cold, and after her death locals revered her as a guardian of children against sickness. The abbot of Nichirin-ji Temple later had a statue of her raised.

How it is done

Accounts describe her visit as a simple exchange with a trap in it. She arrives late in the evening and asks for amazake in a voice like a child's. Nobody is meant to answer her. A person who replies is said to sicken, whether with smallpox or a common cold. Setting a branch of cedar at the entrance is said to turn her away. Mothers also leave offerings, asking that their children stay free of illness. Her selling counterpart works differently: she offers amazake for sale from door to door, and against her a household displays a notice declaring that it dislikes both sake and amazake.

Tools and materials

Two objects carry the story. One is cedar: a branch set where she would step inside is credited with holding her off. The other is a written notice used against her selling form, which states that the household has no liking for sake or amazake; naming the drinks she carries is thought to close the door to her. Amazake itself, a sweet rice drink, is the bait at the heart of the encounter, since the whole visit turns on whether anyone answers her request for it. The offerings left by mothers are a quiet payment, made so that children are spared sickness.

What it is for

The customs around her aim at one thing: keeping children well. Smallpox and colds are the feared outcomes of meeting her, so a mother's offerings amount to a plea that sickness pass the house by. The cedar at the entrance serves the same end, a barrier against the illness she is thought to carry. In Kohinata, Tokyo, the relationship runs the other way: there the deified amazake-seller is honoured as a guardian who shields children from disease, so families look to her for help rather than fear her arrival. Either way, she belongs to the daily work of household care, where parents deal with unseen neighbours over their children's health.

Who does it

The practices sit with ordinary homes rather than with priests or professional spell-workers. Mothers are the ones named as leaving offerings, and the cedar branch and warning notice are acts done at the door by whoever keeps the house. The one religious specialist connected with her is the abbot of Nichirin-ji Temple in Tokyo, who had a statue of the deified amazake-seller of Kohinata raised.

Peoples and places

Three regions hold versions of her. In Miyagi and Aomori prefectures she is Amazake-babaa, the asking hag: she requests amazake and punishes anyone who answers. Under the name amazake banbā the emphasis shifts: this figure sells the drink instead of asking for it, and a household that dislikes sake and amazake and says so on a sign is left alone. Yamanashi Prefecture knows a similar figure called amazake-banbaa, a door-to-door seller who brings sickness to those who answer her. In the Kohinata neighbourhood of Bunkyo City, Tokyo, the tale changes character entirely: the hag becomes a departed local vendor, honoured as a protector of children after her death.

What people believe

The story runs on rules about speech and exchange. A night visitor who asks for amazake is not to be answered: it is the reply, in the telling, that passes smallpox or a cold to the speaker. Illness itself can be treated as a person and a deity, as she was in the years when smallpox was widespread, and a sickness given a face can be appeased with offerings rather than only feared. The same flexibility allows a dead woman to be deified: in Kohinata the figure tied to sickness became a guardian of children, so the same being can be approached as a threat in one place and a protector in another.

Compare and confuse

The names Amazake-babaa and amazake banbā are often set side by side, and the difference between them is small but real: the babaa asks for amazake, while the banbā tries to sell it, and each is warded off differently. Yamanashi's amazake-banbaa is a near match for the selling form. In Tokyo the name attaches instead to a deified local seller, a protector of children rather than a nightly threat.

Questions people ask about Amazake-babaa

Good reading and sources

• Amazake-babaa on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data