Image of Seto taisho

Seto taisho

Seto taishō is a tiny little soldier pieced together out of chipped teacups, cracked dishes, and other miscellaneous utensils that have fallen out of household use. Its face is a sake bottle and its armor is made of porcelain-ware. Seto taishō runs about the kitchen on tiny spoons, wielding knives or chopsticks as swords or spears. Seto taishō is highly aggressive. It loves to chase the cooking staff around the kitchen, causing chaos with every attack. The tiny crockery general occasionally crashes into walls or cabinets, shattering to hundreds of pieces. But it then slowly puts itself back together, and resumes its miniature kitchen war. The word seto refers to Seto, Aichi Prefecture, an area famous for earthenware. Just as we say “china” in English to refer to a specific kind of crockery, the Japanese use “seto mono” as a colloquialism for this tableware.
Alias Seto taishō (瀬戸大将)
Real Names/Alt Names Setodaishō, “General Seto, the crockery general”
Characteristics Yōkai, Enlightenment and Neoclassicism, Japanese
Creators/Key Contributors Toriyama Sekien, ○
First Appearance Japanese folklore
First Publisher
Appearance List Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (百器徒然袋, “The Illustrated Bag of One Hundred Random Demons” or “A Horde of Haunted Housewares”, c. 1781) Vol. 3
Sample Read Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro Vol. 3 (c. 1781) [Smithsonian]
Description Seto taishō is a tiny little soldier pieced together out of chipped teacups, cracked dishes, and other miscellaneous utensils that have fallen out of household use. Its face is a sake bottle and its armor is made of porcelain-ware. Seto taishō runs about the kitchen on tiny spoons, wielding knives or chopsticks as swords or spears. Seto taishō is highly aggressive. It loves to chase the cooking staff around the kitchen, causing chaos with every attack. The tiny crockery general occasionally crashes into walls or cabinets, shattering to hundreds of pieces. But it then slowly puts itself back together, and resumes its miniature kitchen war. The word seto refers to Seto, Aichi Prefecture, an area famous for earthenware. Just as we say “china” in English to refer to a specific kind of crockery, the Japanese use “seto mono” as a colloquialism for this tableware.
Source Seto taishō – Yokai.com
Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro Vol. 3 (c. 1781) | Toriyama Sekien
Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro Vol. 3 (c. 1781) | Toriyama Sekien