Amefurikozō is a type of Japanese yōkai. There is a depiction of this yōkai in Sekien Toriyama’s collection of yōkai drawing the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, and they can also be seen in the kibyōshi among other publications of the same era. In the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki it wears a Japanese umbrella with its central pole missing, and it is depicted possessing a paper lantern. In the explanatory text, it says, “speaking of the rain god Ushi, there is the amefurikozō, who works as its jidō (雨のかみを雨師（ushi）といふ 雨ふり小僧といへるものは めしつかはるる侍童（jidō）にや)”, stating that they are the jidō (children employed by the nobility) of the Chinese god of rain “Ushi”. Since Ushi (雨師) is an honorary title of the nobility (大人, “ushi”), and since jidō (侍童) can be understood as jidō (児童) meaning “children”, there is the interpretation that it is a yōkai depicted using a play on words “a child employed by an adult”. In the kibyōshi of the Edo period, just like the popular kibyōshi character tōfu-kozō, they appear as yōkai that take on the role of servants. In the kibyōshi “Gozonji no Bakemono (御存之化物)” by Jihinari Sakuragawa and illustrated by Utagawa Toyokuni published in Kansei 4 (1792), when a man walks on a rainy night, a one-eyed amefurikozō wearing a bamboo kasa would step up possessing something in both its hands. Since they appear on rainy nights, and since they possess something in both hands, there is the interpretation that they can be understood as tōfu-kozō who also appears on rainy nights possessing tōfu.
Description Amefurikozō is a type of Japanese yōkai. There is a depiction of this yōkai in Sekien Toriyama’s collection of yōkai drawing the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, and they can also be seen in the kibyōshi among other publications of the same era. In the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki it wears a Japanese umbrella with its central pole missing, and it is depicted possessing a paper lantern. In the explanatory text, it says, “speaking of the rain god Ushi, there is the amefurikozō, who works as its jidō (雨のかみを雨師（ushi）といふ 雨ふり小僧といへるものは めしつかはるる侍童（jidō）にや)”, stating that they are the jidō (children employed by the nobility) of the Chinese god of rain “Ushi”. Since Ushi (雨師) is an honorary title of the nobility (大人, “ushi”), and since jidō (侍童) can be understood as jidō (児童) meaning “children”, there is the interpretation that it is a yōkai depicted using a play on words “a child employed by an adult”. In the kibyōshi of the Edo period, just like the popular kibyōshi character tōfu-kozō, they appear as yōkai that take on the role of servants. In the kibyōshi “Gozonji no Bakemono (御存之化物)” by Jihinari Sakuragawa and illustrated by Utagawa Toyokuni published in Kansei 4 (1792), when a man walks on a rainy night, a one-eyed amefurikozō wearing a bamboo kasa would step up possessing something in both its hands. Since they appear on rainy nights, and since they possess something in both hands, there is the interpretation that they can be understood as tōfu-kozō who also appears on rainy nights possessing tōfu.
