Konaki-Jijii

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Portrayals

Abilities

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Konaki-Jijii
2018 anime art
Name
Japanese	子泣き爺
English	Crybaby Geezer Crying Old Man
Profile
Species	Yōkai
Gender	Male
Age	3100
Height	140cm
Weight	Anywhere from 25kg to 2 tons
Home	Yōkai Apartments, GeGeGe Forest
Abilities	Weight changing Stone skin
Affiliation	Kitarō Family 47 Yōkai Warriors
Other Information
Body type	A rather large baby
Face type	A drunken old man
Likes	Sake Sleeping Shogi
Closest friend	Sunakake-Babaa
Marital status	Ask Sunakake-Babaa
First Appearance
Manga	A Walk to Hell (1961)
Anime	Series 1 Episode 7 (1968)
Portrayals
see Cast
[v · t · e]

Konaki-Jijii (子泣き爺 or 子泣きじじい, Crybaby Geezer) is an old man yōkai and a member of the Kitarō Family. He is one of Kitarō's strongest allies and is often seen with Sunakake-Babaa.

Cast

• Anime
  • Ichirō Nagai (1st & 3rd)
    • Yonehiko Kitagawa (1st, Ep. 7)
    • Kōsei Tomita (1st, Ep. 29)
  • Kōji Yada/Sanji Hase (2nd)
    • Ichirō Nagai (2nd, Ep. 19)
    • Shingo Kanemoto (2nd, Ep. 21)
  • Kōzō Shioya (4th, Yo-Kai Watch film)
  • Naoki Tatsuta (5th)
  • Bin Shimada (6th)
• TV Drama
  • Shōichirō Akaboshi (Monday Dramaland)
  • Mansaku Fuwa (Demon Flute)
• Video Games
  • Takanobu Hozumi (GeGeGe no Kitarō: Ibun Yōkai Kitan)
• Movies
  • Kanpei Hazama

Appearance

2018 anime design.

Konaki-Jijii has a head shaped like a baby's with the face of an old man with a mustache and drooping eyebrows. He typically wears a Kintarō apron and a mino.

In some adaptations, his front tooth is blackened.

History

Konaki-Jijii first appeared in a cameo in the rental manga story A Walk to Hell and made his official debut in the Shonen Magazine story The Great Yōkai War. His first appearance in the 1st anime was in Ep. 7. In both the manga and anime version of The Great Yōkai War, he dies during the battle with the Western yōkai. In the manga version his cause of death is unknown, but his corpse is seen after he was lead to the enemy lair by the Witch. In the anime version he is killed by Dracula. In both versions, however, he defeats one of the enemies by weighing them down on the raft and drowning him (Frankenstein in the manga, Wolfman in the anime). He later reappears without any explanation as to how he was revived (Ep. 25) and became a recurring character.

About

Konaki-Jijii is a comic, absent-minded old man yōkai who attacks enemies by clinging to them and turning himself to stone, increasing his weight and mass immensely and pinning them down. He works a lot with Sunakake-Babaa and they are often seen together, leading fans to speculate they may be a couple or even married. Whether or not they are has never been clarified in either the manga or anime, but they are some instances implying they maintain some form of a relationship, such as Sunakake-Babaa getting jealous when Konaki-Jijii fights against other women. In the 2nd anime, Konaki-Jijii implies he actually has a wife, but she is never shown. However, in Yōkai Sen Monogatari he is in love with Sunakake-Babaa.

On occasion he has been shown to have a lot of money saved up, such as the stories Sumo and Witch Lon Lon. In the 4th anime, he even owns fancy clothes and a personal computer he uses to look up information. In Kitarō Kunitori Monogatari, he is distantly related to the human politician Deputy Prime Minister Kinkaku. Kinkaku himself is aware of their relation and even writes him a letter.

He has lived a long time, and as a result his endurance is weak and he sleeps a lot, particularly in the 5th anime. He is also quite a drinker, and Sunakake-Babaa frequently scolds him for getting drunk. In The Great Yōkai Trial, Nezumi-Otoko gives him sake laced with sleeping potion to prevent him from testifying on Kitarō's behalf. There are many other instances of his drinking getting him in trouble, such as when Neko-Shō was able to steal his youth while he was drunk (4th anime, Ep. 108).

Legend

From Shigeru Mizuki's "Japanese Yōkai Encyclopedia":

Deep in the mountains where not many people wander, sometimes a traveler might hear the cry of a baby. The traveler will enter the mountains, wondering why a baby would be there, and pick up the infant in their arms, only for it to grab onto them and refuse to let go.

The traveler will try to run, but the infant will suddenly increases it's weight (to at least 188 kg, and possibly 100s of times more) until the traveler can't move anymore. Eventually the infant becomes so heavy that the traveler is crushed to death. This is the work of the Konaki-Jijii from the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture.

It is also known as the Gogya-Naki (ごぎゃ啼き, Gogya Cryer). This version of the creature wanders the mountains crying "Gogya, Gogya" and his crying seems to cause earthquakes. He is also sometimes said to have only one leg.

There is also the Konaki-Babaa (児啼婆, Crybaby Hag), who has the body of an infant but the face of an old woman, and like the Konaki-Jijii increases it's weight when picked up. In one story, an old man will come across the creature and take it home and try to cook it in a pot, only for it to suddenly change into a pumpkin.

The story may be related to the Notsugo from around Uwajima in Ehime Prefecture, in particular both are stories about a baby heard in the mountains who turns out to be a yōkai.

Image Songs

• Oji-san wa Naiteiru by Ichirō Nagai (1985 anime)
• Konaki no Lullaby by Naoki Tatsuta (2007 anime)

Trivia

• In the 2002 Kodansha International Bilingual Comics edition, he is referred to as Old Man Crybaby.
• In the 2007 anime version, he's the 3rd of the chosen 47 Yōkai Warriors of Japan. He's the representative of Tokushima Prefecture. And his mark is located behind his the upper left side of his head.
• In the 1980s Shonen Magazine manga, he suffers from rheumatism.