Nurikabe

The nurikabe (塗り壁 or 塗壁, literally "plastered wall",) is a yōkai (spirit/monster) from Japanese folklore. It is said to manifest as an invisible wall that impedes or misdirects travelers walking at night. This yōkai is described as quite tall, to prevent people from climbing over it, and wide enough to dampen any attempts to go around it. Japanese scholar and folklorist Kunio Yanagita recorded perhaps the most prominent early example of nurikabe and other yōkai in his books. Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki claims to have had a nurikabe-like experience, being stuck in coal tar in New Guinea, inspiring a nurikabe character in his manga Gegege no Kitarō. It was thought that no pre-modern pictorial depictions of nurikabe existed until it was noticed in 2007 that a 17th century yōkai picture scroll held by Brigham Young University included a "white dog-elephant like creature" labeled as "nurikabe" (see figure at right) matching a later copy held in Japan.