The nuppeppō is a yōkai that appears in Edo Period yōkai emaki such as the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and the Hyakkai Zukan. It is depicted with indistinguishable wrinkles on its face and body as a one head blob of meat. In the emaki, it has nothing more than a name and picture, and there is almost no explanatory text, but from its name and the passage “there is a monster (bakemono) called nuppeppō. It has neither eye nor ear”… from the sharebon (silly tales book) Shingo Zade Hōdai Mōgyū (“Shingo Left All You Can Eat Blind Cow”), it is seen as a type of noppera-bō. In an old picture book manuscript (year unknown) held at the Shisui Library, Inui Yūhei portrayed a yōkai called “nubbehhō” (ぬっべっほう), and it is introduced with the words “it is called the disguised form of an old toad, similar to the fox or tanuki.” This “nubbehhō” picture comes with the words, “a monster that’s a very wrinkly sweet potato with four short limbs.” The aforementioned Shingo Zade Hōdai Mōgyū also writes, “it sucks the fat of the dead and eats to the fullest with a needle. In the past, they’d come disguised as a doctor, but now they just come as is……” Also, the yōkai researcher Katsumi Tada notes that while in modern times, the nopperabō is known as the yōkai with no eyes or nose on its face, in older times it was shaped like this nuppepō with no distinction between face and body. It is said that it smears (“nupperi”) itself with white face powder, called “whitening” (白化), but this “whitening” has the meanings “pretending not to know, feigning ignorance,” “deceive by pretending to speak frankly,” “become open and unconcealed,” “apply white facial powder,” and “white monster,” among others. It is said that as an embodiment of this “whitening,” the nuppepō would first impersonate a human (pretending not to know), come to a pedestrian and talk as if friendly (speaking frankly), and as that person is letting their guard down, they’d show their true form (become open and unconcealed) and show their original appearance (a white monster, as if having applied white facial powder).
Description The nuppeppō is a yōkai that appears in Edo Period yōkai emaki such as the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and the Hyakkai Zukan. It is depicted with indistinguishable wrinkles on its face and body as a one head blob of meat. In the emaki, it has nothing more than a name and picture, and there is almost no explanatory text, but from its name and the passage “there is a monster (bakemono) called nuppeppō. It has neither eye nor ear”… from the sharebon (silly tales book) Shingo Zade Hōdai Mōgyū (“Shingo Left All You Can Eat Blind Cow”), it is seen as a type of noppera-bō. In an old picture book manuscript (year unknown) held at the Shisui Library, Inui Yūhei portrayed a yōkai called “nubbehhō” (ぬっべっほう), and it is introduced with the words “it is called the disguised form of an old toad, similar to the fox or tanuki.” This “nubbehhō” picture comes with the words, “a monster that’s a very wrinkly sweet potato with four short limbs.” The aforementioned Shingo Zade Hōdai Mōgyū also writes, “it sucks the fat of the dead and eats to the fullest with a needle. In the past, they’d come disguised as a doctor, but now they just come as is……” Also, the yōkai researcher Katsumi Tada notes that while in modern times, the nopperabō is known as the yōkai with no eyes or nose on its face, in older times it was shaped like this nuppepō with no distinction between face and body. It is said that it smears (“nupperi”) itself with white face powder, called “whitening” (白化), but this “whitening” has the meanings “pretending not to know, feigning ignorance,” “deceive by pretending to speak frankly,” “become open and unconcealed,” “apply white facial powder,” and “white monster,” among others. It is said that as an embodiment of this “whitening,” the nuppepō would first impersonate a human (pretending not to know), come to a pedestrian and talk as if friendly (speaking frankly), and as that person is letting their guard down, they’d show their true form (become open and unconcealed) and show their original appearance (a white monster, as if having applied white facial powder).
