Ao-andon is a yokai in Japanese culture
Ao-andon is the embodiment of mass human terror, formed from the accumulated fear of large groups of people. It takes the form of a demon woman with long black hair, blue skin, black teeth, sharp claws, and horns. It wears a white or blue kimono and glows with an eerie blue light. Its staple food is fear of humans. However, there are also youkai that choose to eat humans to live alongside youkai that live by eating humans' fear of seeing them.
Ao-andon is a special youkai, as it only appears during a ritual held. That ritual is called "Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai", which means "a gathering of one hundred ghost stories". People usually begin the ritual on moonless nights, when it is completely dark (between ten o'clock in the evening and two o'clock in the morning), in a three-room house with only the third chamber lit. In that room will be lit a hundred candles, and a small mirror placed on the table. Participants in the ritual are only allowed to wear blue clothes, are not allowed to bring anything, especially the sword - which is believed to be the only thing that can cut demons. They sit in the first room, telling each other about any ghost stories they hear or experience, then go to the third room, blow out a candle, look in the mirror and then return to the first room. . By the time the hundredth story ended, darkness covered all three rooms. At this point, Ao-andon will appear.
During the Edo period, a popular summer activity among the aristocracy was to gather and tell ghost stories, in the hope that chills from the stories could dispel the scorching heat. Then, the ritual of telling ghost stories is called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai – a gathering of one hundred ghost stories.
During these rituals, one hundred candles are lit and placed inside blue paper lanterns called "andons" to create a spooky atmosphere suitable for storytelling. Throughout the evening, participants will take turns telling increasingly horrifying stories about youkai, demons, ghosts, and other strange things. After each story, a candle will be extinguished. The room darkened, until only the hundredth candle remained. Its dim blue light will try to fill the room and cast creepy long shadows. And after the last candle is extinguished, Ao-andon will emerge from the darkness to attack the participants. It has the form of a female demon with long black hair, grayish-blue skin, dyed black teeth, sharp claws, and horns on its head. Ao-andon usually wears a white or blue kimono and glows with a faint blue flame. How they attack humans is still a mystery. Maybe they will brutally butcher their victims like in ancient legends, or simply jump in to scare their victims before they return home. The reason is, by the time the 99th ghost story is told, the participants are usually too scared and the parties will often end there before Ao-andon can show up. As the old saying goes, if you tell ghost stories, you will meet them sooner or later. The scary thing is that just talking about ghosts and spirits long enough will make them come true
📚 Explore more of the Mystical Creatures series here: Dive into the Enchanted Realms of Mythology
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