Ungaikyo is a haunted mirror that is capable of revealing demons and monsters reflected in its surface.
Some believe the spirit that inhabitants this mirror, as well as the countless spirits that have been reflected in it over the years, can manipulate the reflection and cause it to appear as anything they like. People who gaze into an ungaikyo might see a transformed, monstrous version of themselves looking back.
An ungaikyo can be used by humans to trap spirits.
On the 15th night of the 8th month in the old lunar calendar, water is poured
into a crystal dish to reflect the light of the full moon. (In the old days this was a popular way of admiring the reflection of the night sky.)
If that water is used to paint the image of a yokai onto a mirror, that spirit will then inhabit the mirror.
Ungaikyo appears in Toriyama Sekien’s book of tsukumogami Hyakki tsurezure bukuro. Sekien based this yokai on a mirror from an old Chinese myth.
That mirror was called shomakyo (“demon revealing mirror”). It had the ability to expose the true forms of demons masquerading as humans when they were
reflected in the mirror.
Shomakyo was used by Zhou to reveal that his consort was actually a wicked nine-tailed
kitsune, intent on runing his kingdom through her evil depravities.
Her true form revealed, she fled the country (setting into action a chain of events
that would eventually lead her Japan as Tamamo no Mae).
Shomakyo was used time and time again to reveal the true nature of disguised spirits.
Sekien believed that such a mirror might eventually pick up a little of the strangeness of each yokai and demon it reflected, eventually becoming one itself.
Perhaps the countless spirits that it has reflected over the years have slowly gained the ability to manipulate its reflections.
In more modern versions, ungaikyo is been described as a normal mirror that has transformed into a living being upon reaching one hundred years of age, the mirror develops a soul and is transformed into a type of yokai called a tsukumogami.
The mirror has also been portrayed as one of the many transformations performed by tanuki.
By sucking in large amounts of air and inflating their bellies, a tanuki is able to display a picture on its bare belly similar to a television screen. This portrayal is not rooted in folklore however, but comes from Daiei Films’ 1968-69 yokai movies.
Nonetheless, it has caught on and remains a popular variation of ungaikyo in many productions.
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