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Mikari-Baba (みかり婆 Mikari-Baba) is a yōkai.[1]

Appearance[]

Mikari-Babaa is an old woman with an oval-shaped head, her skin is completely black with the exception of her pale white hands. Her face comprises of a small nose, a pair of small eyes that have white sclerae with red irises and black pupils, her mouth is in a wide grin, where it lacks any visible teeth and is completely red. She wears a straw hat that resembles a mino, a yellow kimono with a pattern of green circles with white rings around each, she carries around a brown walking cane and a straw ball that has an orange band and white nozzle.[1]

Personality[]

History[]

2007 Anime[]

Mikari Warrior

She is one of the chosen 47 Yōkai Warriors and represents Kanagawa Prefecture. She appears in GeGeGe no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!! Due to the fifth anime adaptation's sudden cancellation at 100 episodes, she is among the 23 Yōkai Warriors that were not revealed aside from the movie.[1]

The Great Yōkai War[]

Powers and Abilities[]

Legend[]

Mikari-Baba are yōkai resemble old women missing an eye. They often wear dilapidated old straw hats and coats and carry a flaming torch in their mouths. They are so greedy that during winter they creep into villages to steal raincoats, winnowing baskets, and eyes from people. Like many one-eyed yōkai, Mikari-Baba are afraid of objects that have many holes in them, because it is thought that the holes resemble many eyes, making these yōkai afraid of them.

Mikari-Baba are known to work together with other yōkai, often appearing with Hitotsume-Kozō. During winter, the two travel from house to house, writing the names of families in a ledger which they present to the gods a few weeks later. The gods then use this report to give misfortune and diseases to people as they see fit. They appear on fixed dates, varying from tradition, but usually falls on the eighth day of the second or twelfth month of the lunisolar calendar. These dates are referred to as kotoyōka, meaning 8th-day events, and are rooted in ancient religious practices surrounding rituals for the new year.

The kanji in Mikari-Baba’s name literally means “winnowing basket borrowing hag,” this is likely a folk etymology that was invented long after she was named. "Mikari" has an older meaning, referring to a period of purification before ancient religious ceremonies, this isolation was also known as "Mikawari". Because it was forbidden for people to be outside during this period, any person coming to your house was sure to be a yōkai, one of these was given the name Mikari-Baba, and the kanji for her name was added later to reflect her behavior.[2]

References[]

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