#abumiguchi

[briefbestiary]

Awaiting the return of the dead, an abumi-guchi seems unlikely to ever leave its own resting place.

[lpbestiary]

Abumi-guchi are a type of tsukumogami from Japanese culture. They come from stirrups belonging to warriors who fall in battle, and their name translates as "stirrup mouth."

Once the stirrups are abandoned on the battlefield, they will transform, and having lost their purpose, wait fruitlessly in the field for a master that will never return for them.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[jigokuyeah]

Abumi-kuchi

鐙口 (あぶみくち)

Stirrup Mouth

From the now defunct website Obakemono Project:

A strange furry creature formed from a stirrup, illustrated in the Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. The accompanying poem suggests that it once belonged to a man who has fallen in battle, and now shares in his misfortune:

膝の口をのぶかにいさせてあぶみを越して

おりたゝんとすれども、なんぎの手なればと、

おなじくうたふと、夢心におぼへぬ。

An arrow is shot deep into the knee, and he falls from his stirrups, and the hand of suffering is dealt, and such a song is sung, I saw it not in my dreaming mind.

Art by S.H.Morgan

You can read more about Abumi-kuchi on Yokai.com and a translation of Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro in Japandemonium by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda. 

And check out more Obakemono Project posts in Jigoku Yeah’s Obakemono Project tag

[yokaizin]

Abumiguchi

鐙口 あぶみぐち

TRANSLATION: stirrup mouth

APPEARANCE: Abumiguchi were once stirrups belonging to a warrior who fell in battle. The stirrups were left on the battlefield, forgotten. Upset at losing their purpose, a soldier’s implements can transform into tsukumogami. Like faithful hounds, abumiguchi wait in the fields for their masters, who will sadly never return.

taken from Yokai.com IG - Twitter - FB Support Matthew Meyer and Yokai.com on Patreon

[siryl]

This drawing by Gitoku of the legendary Abumi-guchi (“Stirrup Mouth”) is one of the best pieces of Tsukumogami art I’ve found.