The Amefurashi (アメフラシ, Amefurashi?) is an obscure yokai who appears as a little girl with somewhat frog-like facial features carrying a large leaf as a makeshift umbrella. She is a rain spirit, able to summon or withhold rains as she sees fit, as well as place curses or send nightmares to punish those who make her angry.
Biography[]
Several decades before the series began, a young boy named Amamori hated his local school's sports festivals, due to being unathletic in nature. As he wandered the local forest one afternoon cursing the upcoming festival and praying for rain, he stumbled across an Amefurashi, who offered to ensure it rained the next day if he would promise to play with her once it was done. He agreed, and the yokai was as good as her word. When it was time for him to repay the debt, however, his father moved out of town, forcing him to leave before he could keep his word. This greatly angered the Amefurashi, who vowed vengeance. She cursed his daughter, Tsuyoko Amamori, turning her into a water magnet. This tormented her until her seventeenth year, when she moved to Tomobiki and entered Class 2-4 at Tomobiki High School. Here, she met Ataru Moroboshi, whose lechery led him to try and break the curse. The Amefurashi came to Tomobiki to stop him, but was finally confronted by the boy she had met all those years ago; after he played with her for a week, her anger was finally sated and she withdrew her curse before leaving.
Whilst she only appears in a single multi-chapter story in the manga, she makes several cameo appearances in the 1981 anime.
Abilities[]
As a rain spirit, the Amefurashi can summon rain and manipulate water as she sees fit. She can place a curse on a victim that will cause them to draw water like a magnet draws iron filings, and visit terrible nightmares on people. However, she is terrified of teru teru bōzu, a traditional Japanese folk charm to ward off rain, and will flee at the sight of them.
Trivia[]
- The Amefurashi is relatively obscure in the yokai lexicon. More well-known is its masculine counterpart, the Amefurikozō (雨降小僧, 雨降り小僧).