Tenka (atmospheric ghost light)

Folklore

In Atsumi District, Aichi Prefecture, a nocturnal brightness on the road likened to noon is called tenbi. In Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, summer evening fires that fly with a loud noise are termed tenpi. In Higashimatsuura District, Saga Prefecture, a tenka appearance improved the weather, but any house it entered suffered illness; residents beat a kane to drive it out. In Tamana District, Kumamoto Prefecture, a tenka is a falling fire about the size of a paper lantern; if it lands on a roof, a conflagration follows.

In Saga Prefecture generally, tenka were seen as a hated omen of fire. Tenka were once regarded as a type of vengeful spirit. According to the Amakusatō Minzokushi from the Amakusa islands, a man who went fishing in Oniike village was mistreated by villagers and died of illness. Thereafter a fireball appeared each evening, burned a brush, and spread to destroy all the village houses.

The villagers, believing this was the man's vengeful spirit, built a jizō at the site of his ill-treatment and mourned him every winter. In Tosa Province, tenka are called shanshanbi because they are said to make a shan shan sound, like the janjanbi of Nara Prefecture.

Classics

To drive it away, they gathered and recited a Buddhist prayer, causing the tenka to change direction and flee; it eventually disappeared in suburban vegetation. Another method, recorded in the Ansei-period collection Fude no Susabi, involved fanning a tenka with a setta sandal. In that account, a person in Hizen Province lost their home to a fire and claimed that the fire fell on another house, whose resident used a setta to drive it away, thereby redirecting the fire to the complainant's home; the complainant sought compensation from the other resident through the daikan.

The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari describes tenka as causing deaths by fire when houses burn. One story tells of a heartless daikan who mistreated subordinates and gained a bad reputation; after he left his post, a fire with no apparent source burned his house, killing him and consuming all his gold, silver, treasures, and clothing. A witness reported seeing a lump of fire falling from the sky at the time of that fire.