JIKININKI

Lore

Jikininki (食人鬼), literally “man-eating ghost,” belong to a special class of spirits condemned to hunt for food forever yet unable to swallow even a grain of rice. The only thing that can sate them is human corpse-flesh. Legends stress that this fate befalls people who showed extreme selfishness in life or who profaned a priestly fast. A greedy cleric who stole offerings or a corrupt official rises as a dangerous ghoul with a mouth that stretches unnaturally wide and an unending hunger.

The creature’s appearance is repellent: blood-smeared fangs and ulcerous skin frame a grotesquely swollen belly, while the limbs remain gaunt and sinewy. Yet a jikininki keeps its human intellect and a bitter shame over its condition. To hide from the living, it can magically shift into the shape of an old monk or dissolve into a misty cloud. Haunting burial grounds, these spirits often seep through crypt cracks at night to devour the dead.