tanuki-kimono:Acrylic accessories shaped as tsuba (decorative sword guard) by Umetsukiyo. Some custo
tanuki-kimono:Acrylic accessories shaped as tsuba (decorative sword guard) by Umetsukiyo. Some customers used them as striking obidome (decorative obi buckle) like in this very nice kitsune-themed outfit seen on. Those fake-tsuba motifs are taken from folk stories, with from top to bottom +left to right: Shuten doji, the great demon lord, one of the 3 most powerful yokai of Japan alongside Tamamo no mae and OtakemaruTsuchigumo, a monstruous man-eaterground spiderNue, a shape shifting monster moving as a black cloudKokaji, a nod to a famous noh piece were a swordsmith received divine help from Inari itselfHakuzosu, a famous kitsune who shape-shifted and took the identity of a buddhist priestKappa no u, from a folktale where the monk Osho saved a kappa’s life and received with thanks a pot holding the river’s songModoribashi, japan has numerous tales where oni guard a bridge, this one is probably refering to this Watanabe no Tsuna story Ikkyu, is a very famous monk and the hero of many folk stories (I am not sure which episode is depicted here ^^;) -- source link