The Waking Things
Some spirits are not born at all. They are made and then forgotten, and the forgetting is the making, because an object of daily use that sits long enough outside of use begins to keep its own counsel, the way a sutra scroll left rolled for a century did in Sekien's Japan or a worn-out broom did in a Korean yard. The rice-paste figure is the exception that proves it: shaped as a plaything, woken in an instant by a needle's nick. Ownership is a door that swings both ways. What you discard remembers you.
What binds them
- Animated household object · 11 of them
- Born from inanimate object · 5 of them
- Sentient inanimate household object comes alive · 4 of them
- Ordinary object by day animate spirit by night · 3 of them
- Hops on single leg · 3 of them
- Bioluminescent body markings · 2 of them
- Spirit born from neglected objects over time · 2 of them
- Animal communication · 2 of them
Drawn from 4 groups of traditions: East Asian 8 · None 3 · European 1 · North American Indigenous 1
13 members
- Agloolik
- Awl Man
- Bakezōri
- Biwa-bokuboku
- Bulgasari
- Chōchinobake
- Dokkaebi
- Ittan-momen
- Kasa-obake
- Kyōrinrin
- Morinji-no-okama
- Para
- Saci-Pererê
Resemblance is not descent; descent is drawn only as the gold lines on the constellation. All families.