Aoandon — who is it in Japanese mythology
Aoandon (青行燈) is a yokai that is summoned voluntarily in Japanese mythology. A horned, fanged woman in white appears at the end of hyaku-monogatari: storytellers light a hundred blue paper lanterns and extinguish one for each scary story. If they stay until the hundredth, extinguish the last one — here she is. The name literally means 'blue lantern': from the light in which she is seen.
Aoandon is the only yokai whose appearance is literally programmed by the rules of the game: count up to a hundred stories, extinguish the last lantern — get what you came for.
Who is Aoandon and what do the hundred lanterns have to do with it
Aoandon is a female yokai with horns and fangs, in white robes and with long black hair. She appears in the last glow of a blue paper lantern during the game hyaku-monogatari kaidankai — 'gathering of a hundred tales of the supernatural'. The rules are: participants light a hundred blue lanterns and tell one creepy story for each, extinguishing a lantern after each story. The room gradually darkens, and at the hundredth lantern, according to legend, Aoandon herself stands in the doorway.
- Appearance condition: tell exactly one hundred stories and extinguish the last lantern.
- Appearance: horns, sharp fangs, long black hair, white robes.
- Lighting: the bluish twilight of the last unextinguished andon lantern.
- Origin: not an ancient myth, but folklore of the Edo-period kaidan game.
Hyaku-monogatari: the salon game that gave birth to her
Hyaku-monogatari kaidankai is a real salon tradition of the Edo period, documented in collections of scary stories from that time. It is from these collections, not from the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, that the image of Aoandon came — she belongs to the layer of urban folklore, not state mythology.
青行燈 — simply 'blue lantern'
| Japanese | Reading | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 青行燈 | Aoandon · Aoandon | 'Blue lantern' — the name of the yokai |
| 百物語 | hyaku monogatari · hyaku-monogatari | 'A hundred stories' — the name of the game |
| 行燈 | andon · andon | Paper lantern on a stand |
| 怪談 | kaidan · kaidan | Scary story |
| 青 | ao · ao | Blue |
Why the name describes not her, but the light
青行燈 is read あおあんどん: 青 'blue', 行燈 'paper lantern on a stand' — that is, simply 'blue lantern'. The name describes not the appearance of the yokai itself, but the conditions in which she is seen: the bluish light of traditional andon paper in an almost dark room.
燈 — значение: lamp, light, counter for lights — онъёми: トウ — кунъёми: ひ、ほ-、ともしび、とも.す — 16 штрих(ов). 燈 — 'lantern, lamp': on the left fire 火, on the right a phonetic element. The same root in 電燈 (electric lamp).
Write 燈 along the guides and learn the stroke order.
Aoandon in anime and yokai catalogs
- Natsume's Book of Friends and similar yokai catalogs periodically mention hyaku-monogatari as a format in which stories about minor spirits are told.
- Horror games about the 'hundred-lantern game' in various languages borrow the structure precisely from hyaku-monogatari kaidankai, even without naming Aoandon.
- Japanese summer horror TV specials regularly stage the game itself as the format from which the legend was born.
FAQ
- Is Aoandon a deity?
- Not a Shinto deity, but a yokai of urban folklore: a horned, fanged woman who, according to belief, appears at the hundredth lantern of the hyaku-monogatari kaidankai game.
- What is the danger of Ao Andon?
- There is little direct description of harm from her in sources — the tradition itself is more about the effect of her appearance than about specific consequences. Many storytellers simply stopped the game before reaching the hundredth story, so as not to find out.
- What do the characters 青行燈 mean?
- 青行燈 (あおあんどん): 青 'blue' plus 行燈 'paper lantern'. The name describes not her appearance, but the conditions of her appearance — the blue light of the last unextinguished lantern.
- Has Aoandon appeared in anime?
- There are few direct adaptations, but the format of the hyaku-monogatari game from which she comes regularly appears in yokai series and horror specials as an occasion for telling scary stories.
- Does the hyaku-monogatari game exist today?
- As a salon entertainment — rarely in its original form, but the idea of 'telling a hundred stories in the dark' is alive in modern horror quizzes and streaming horror formats.
- Is Aoandon the spirit of a deceased person?
- A yokai is a supernatural being of urban folklore, not a deity and not the disembodied spirit of a specific deceased person. She belongs to the same layer as most Edo yokai.
Sources
Updated: 2026-08-29