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Tsuchigumo

And so, spiders. There are lots of spider Yokai out there, from the Jorogumo lady to the Ushii-Oni ox. But Tsuchigumo is its own creature, patterned after the beefy Purseweb Spiders.

 

Tsuchigumo is actually an ethnic slur against Japan’s indigeneous people – “dirt spider” – and the term preexisted the monster, though thankfully the Yokai has mostly managed to displace its original use. As a monster, it is a gigantic house-sized spider with shapeshifting abilities. One famous story involves a samurai defeating a Tsuchigumo and cutting it open, only to find hundreds of skulls and other human remains spilling out of its carcass. Take that, arachnophobia!

 

Featured on Life In Plastic: nerditis.com/2014/08/15/life-in-plastic-the-night-parade-...

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Uploaded on August 26, 2014
Taken on August 26, 2014