Garei (画霊 Garei, lit. "Painting Ghost") is a human-like yōkai.
Appearance[]
Garei is a fair-skinned young woman wearing an orange kimono with floral patterns, and carries a baby.
History[]
Video Games[]
- Garei appears in GeGeGe no Kitarō: Yōkai Yokochō as a B-Rank yōkai.
Legend[]
Illustration of Garei
Garei is a yōkai documented in Fujiwara no Ietaka's Bunsei era essay "Rakuguri Monogatari" (落栗物語, Tale of Chestnuts). It's implied in the following story that it was formed due to the love an artist made in painting.
In the house of a chancellor named Kanshuji, there was a tattered byōbu with a picture of a woman. One day, a messenger arrived from the samurai office of someone named Honamidono, and asked Kanshuji if they could borrow the byōbu. Kanshuji agreed and to lend it to him. After the messenger borrowed the byōbu, a mysterious woman holding a child began to appear near Honamidono's residence. When someone tried to follow the woman, she disappeared into the byōbu! Growing uneasy, the messenger eventually returned it to Kanshuji, but the same thing happened there. The byōbu was later identified by an artist Kanshuji called as being a valuable piece painted by Tosa Mitsuoki, and after it was restored, the mysterious woman was never seen again.