Jawnomicon

Tenjōname

Also called Tenjō-name, ceiling-licker.

Tenjōname is a Japanese yōkai, a gaunt ceiling-licking figure chiefly attested through Edo-period illustrated catalogues such as Toriyama Sekien's, with little independent oral tradition behind the image.

At a glance

Tradition
Japanese folklore
Region
Japan (place of origin)
Trait family
The Child-Frighteners

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Extending tongue attack
    why

    Tenjōname, literally "ceiling-licker," is a yōkai of the Japanese Edo period depicted as a tall, gaunt, faintly humanoid figure with an extraordinarily long tongue, shown clinging to or reaching along the ceiling of an old building.

Curses

  • Cold presence
    why

    Bane records that a person near one of these creatures is said to feel a chill in their dreams, and Toriyama's catalogue ties the original telling to cold and darkness rather than dirt.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.