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 or a drop of water. The only thing that can sate them is human corpse-flesh. This supernatural hunger is an eternal sentence for those who allowed their greed to consume their humanity while alive.

Legends stress that this fate befalls people who showed extreme selfishness in life or who profaned a priestly fast. A greedy cleric who stole temple offerings or an official who robbed widows and orphans dies and rises as a dangerous ghoul: the mouth stretches unnaturally wide, razor teeth sprout, hands grow claws, and an unending hunger gnaws at him.

The creature's appearance repels the eye: blood-smeared fangs and ulcerous skin frame a grotesquely swollen belly, while the limbs are gaunt and sinewy-an animated cadaver whose every ounce of strength goes toward finding fresh flesh. It is often described as having glowing eyes that pierce the darkness of burial grounds, searching for its next meal.

Yet a jikininki keeps its human intellect, and with it a bitter shame over what it has become. To hide from the living it can magically shift into the shape of an old monk or hermit, or even dissolve into a misty cloud. Because it haunts burial grounds, people sometimes see that grave-mist seep through a crypt's cracks at night, only to condense inside into its loathsome true form.