Hiderigami is a mythical species of yaoguai or yōkai in Chinese and Japanese folklore that holds the power to cause droughts. From early-Qin to Han, the hanba appears in a goddess form, with characteristics of a woman in black. This period’s hanba has both the identity of a god and a monster, people treated it as the god of drought, and attempted to drive it away with sunshine, flood, and tigers to achieve the goal of bringing rain. Since mid-Han to early Ming, the goddess image has slowly changed to that of a ghost, because the worship of nature has died down since Qin and Han, so the goddess nature has gradually been denied in the hearts of people. After mid-Ming, the ghost nature gradually switched to that of a vampire-like nature and image. At the end of Qing, the myth that hanba is able to transform into a hou appeared. According to a quote from the Bencao Gangmu in the Edo period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue, the Hiderigami is “from sixty to ninety centimeters long, has eyes on the top of its head, and moves quickly like the wind.” In Toriyama Sekien’s Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past, it is referred to as Hiderigami (魃, “drought”) or Kanbo (旱母, “drought mother”) and is drawn as a beast with one arm and one eye.
Alias Hiderigami (日照り神)
Real Names/Alt Names “God of Drought”; Kanbo (旱母, “drought mother”)
Description Hiderigami is a mythical species of yaoguai or yōkai in Chinese and Japanese folklore that holds the power to cause droughts. From early-Qin to Han, the hanba appears in a goddess form, with characteristics of a woman in black. This period’s hanba has both the identity of a god and a monster, people treated it as the god of drought, and attempted to drive it away with sunshine, flood, and tigers to achieve the goal of bringing rain. Since mid-Han to early Ming, the goddess image has slowly changed to that of a ghost, because the worship of nature has died down since Qin and Han, so the goddess nature has gradually been denied in the hearts of people. After mid-Ming, the ghost nature gradually switched to that of a vampire-like nature and image. At the end of Qing, the myth that hanba is able to transform into a hou appeared. According to a quote from the Bencao Gangmu in the Edo period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue, the Hiderigami is “from sixty to ninety centimeters long, has eyes on the top of its head, and moves quickly like the wind.” In Toriyama Sekien’s Illustrated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past, it is referred to as Hiderigami (魃, “drought”) or Kanbo (旱母, “drought mother”) and is drawn as a beast with one arm and one eye.
