Kameosa (瓶長)

Kameosa is a Japanese specter that is introduced in "Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro" (One hundred bags in idleness), a collection of specters illustrations by Sekien TORIYAMA.

It is depicted as an earthenware pot having eyes, nose, and mouth, and according to Sekien's explanatory note, it was a pot with happiness so to speak, for even if water is drawn from the pot, the water never exhausted.

There is also an interpretation that an earthenware pot had become a Tsukumo-gami (gods to a variety of things) with soul as the years passed by, and have come to acquire power to manipulate water as it wished.

Since no folklore on a specter named Kameosa exist, it is thought to be a created specter, and there is a theory that it was created from "亀長" (Kameosa), a pen name for Harumachi KOIKAWA as a painter, who was a disciple of Sekien.

[Original Japanese]