Waira, a hard worker deep in the mountains

Hello, this is Kamiyo. I feel like my nails have been growing faster recently. There is a saying that hair grows faster because you are constantly thinking about obscene things, but I was curious about what kind of people have fast-growing nails, so I looked into it.

Apparently, there is a saying in the world, "easy hair, hard nails," which means that when you are relaxed, your hair grows, and when you struggle, your nails grow.It's a shame that people whose hair grows quickly receive a lot of unfounded insults, such as being told they're taking it easy or that they're always thinking about lewd things.

Anyway, this time I'll be introducing the sharp-clawed monster "Waira'We will introduce you to...

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Waira is a monster with claws on the ends of its arms that lives deep in the mountains. It is a monster that has rarely been seen and seems to live mainly by eating moles, but larger individuals sometimes attack humans.

There is also a legend that the males are brown and the females are red. A yokai with such "biological characteristics" seems much more real. I wonder if it was treated like an unidentified creature at the time.

This monster is depicted in such books as "Bakemonozukushi" and "Zuga Hyakki Yakou" (The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons), but strangely enough, no matter which one you look at,Only the upper body is included.All we see are clawed hands and terrifying faces. The documents from that time don't show us anything about our lower bodies.

Why did the monster artists of the time stubbornly avoid depicting the lower halves of our bodies? After thinking about it, I came up with a hypothesis.

In the first place, it's not that I didn't draw it,I wonder if he couldn't draw it..

Yes, what if we were monsters that lived underground? They are only seen when they emerge from the ground. Otherwise they are underground and cannot be seen. That is why there are no reports of sightings of the lower half of their bodies, and drawings of only the upper half are mass-produced. The fact that their main food is moles also supports this hypothesis.

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Regarding the name Waira, there is a theory that its etymology comes from "wairai" (to be afraid and reverent), because Waira's prostrating posture makes it look like he is afraid of something.

However, this is a very scary hypothesis. If you think about it inversely,There are monsters living in the mountains that we are always afraid of and have to bow down to.That's what it means.

There is an interpretation that mountains are the other world closest to humans, and in Toyama Prefecture, there is even a folk belief that hell exists in the mountains. It may not be surprising if something does exist in those mountains.

Maybe our nails are long because we are always scared of something we can't see. Good luck to you, Rakugami Kutsuna.

(Image: Zuga Hyakki Yakou)