Noderabō
Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.
Overview
Noderabō appears in Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō as a monk-like figure beside a temple bell, wearing a damaged hat. The scene supplies a setting and a recognizable human role, but Sekien does not explain a full story. Modern descriptions often place the being in an abandoned temple and have it ring the bell. Those additions should be identified as later interpretation rather than recovered text from the original plate.
The image has also been read as satire directed at religious misconduct, but that is a hypothesis about an enigmatic composition. A careful profile can describe the bell, the costume and the ruined or uncanny atmosphere without inventing a tragic biography for the figure. Noderabō is therefore included as an attested historical yōkai image whose narrative identity remains limited, not as a fully documented regional legend with a securely known beginning.
Origins & earliest records
Selected illustrated witness: Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776). This is an attestation of the named representation, not a claim that the belief began in that year.
Records & interpretation
Historical prints and textual references establish an imagined being and its representation. The linked contextual article distinguishes the pictured form from regional accounts; these sources do not establish zoological existence.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō
Selected historical witness; individual illustration now checked in the separately linked primary scan. This edition is not a claim of the earliest oral attestation.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō
Volume 2, Yang (陽); NDL 1805 edition bound in catalog record 百鬼夜行 3巻拾遺3巻. [1]. NDL canvas 21, left page of photographed opening
Printed 野寺坊; a dishevelled figure appears beside a large hanging temple bell and overgrown vegetation. Printed name and illustration inspected together. Canvas numbering identifies the digitized opening, not an original printed page number.
The Noderabō plate makes its architectural setting unusually prominent. A large suspended bell fills the left edge, partly cropped by the border, and the figure leans beside it with an exposed, disordered head and raised hands. Leaves, grasses and an irregular tree trunk encroach on the temple structure. That arrangement presents the place as overgrown and the creature as encountered within it, rather than showing an abstract monster against empty paper. The name 野寺坊 is printed at the upper right of the individual page. Across the book's gutter is a different waterborne figure. Keeping that boundary matters: the opposite illustration is not another stage of Noderabō's story, and the scene does not supply a named historical monk.
Encyclopedia background
An additional attributed reference, separate from the editorial profile above.
Read the open encyclopedia overview
The noderabō is a Japanese yōkai from Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and is thought to be a yōkai that appears at abandoned temples.
The Gazu Hyakki Yagyō depicts a yōkai that looks like a monk wearing a tattered kasa standing next to a temple bell, but there is no explanation from Sekien about what this is about, so it is not known what characteristics this yōkai was intended to have.
Beginning in the Shōwa period, literature about yōkai often explained that they are a yōkai that appear at deserted dilapidated temples or that they are resulting the grudges turned yōkai of a chief priest whose temple became dilapidated from lack of donations from villagers, which would then appear at evenings at the dilapidated temple and ring the bell alone at the deserted temple.
Text from Wikipedia contributors, “Noderabō”. CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted introduction; formatting changed. Retrieved 5 October 2026. The source article may have changed since retrieval.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary illustrated book / national-library recordNocturnal Procession of the Hundred Demons — historical editionResearch access: 2026-10-05
- National library / primary illustration contextTORIYAMA Sekien’s Illustrated Night Parade of the Demon HordeResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Secondary referenceNoderabō — contextual overview and bibliographyResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary illustrated plate / institutional digitizationGazu Hyakki Yagyō — directly inspected NDL canvas 21, left page of photographed openingResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Reference illustrationNoderabō
Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.
