Are all apparitions on Monogatari based on actual stories?


In the Monogatari Series, there are a lot apparitions. The ones that can
easily recognized as corresponding to actual stories in real life are the
phoenix (Araragi Tsuhiki) and vampire (Araragi Koyomi, Oshino Shinobu). What
about the others? Here's a list of apparition that appear so far in anime

  1. Crab God (Senjougahara Hitagi)
  2. Lost Cow/Snail (Hachikuji Mayoi)
  3. Monkey Paw/Rainy Devil (Kanbaru Suruga)
  4. Snake God (Sengoku Nadeko)
  5. Flame-Wreath Bee (Araragi Karen)
  6. Black-Hanekawa (Hanekawa Tsubasa)

In the case of Hanekawa, they said that it's a new kind of apparition. Are all
of them based on apparitions in "real-life" stories?




While it's difficult to prove a negative, and there's no telling where Nisio
Isin got his inspiration from, I would be willing to claim that that most of
the apparitions appearing in the Monogatari series aren't quite based on real-
life stories.

Broadly, one point in favor of this position is that other people on the
internet (in Japan) have also tried to find origins for the various
apparitions and failed. Given the popularity of Monogatari, this strongly
suggests that there indeed aren't any real-life bases for most of the
apparitions, though, of course, this doesn't amount to conclusive proof.

## Crab

Hitagi's crab is a difficult case to handle. Crabs are a semi-frequent feature
of Japanese folklore - see, for example, [the tale of the Crab and the
Monkey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crab_and_the_Monkey) (which Meme
mentions), or the legends surrounding the [Heike
crabs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heikegani), so we can't discard out-of-
hand the possibility that the "Weight Crab" ( _omoshikani_ ) has basis in
actual legend. Nonetheless, it seems improbable.

Meme claims that legends of the "Weight Crab" originated from peoples living
in the mountains of Kyushu. However, he goes on to point out that the areas
from which these legends originated - the mountainous parts of Oita and
Miyazaki - are not actually places where you will find any crabs. Meme brushes
this off, explaining that it's easier to concoct grand legends about crabs
when you don't have any actual crabs at hand.

I'm not convinced that this really makes sense in a real-world context, though
- do people tend to feature in their legends creatures that they have little
contact with? I'm no anthropologist, but it seems unlikely. Someone familiar
with the folklore of Kyushu would know more, I'm sure.

There are also some things about Hitagi's crab that just seem too convenient.
For example, its name is incredibly punnable in ways relevant to the plot - 思い
_omoi_ "thoughts" vs. 想い _omoi_ "feelings" vs. 重い _omoi_ "heavy". The
resolution of this arc is strongly related to the realization that the crab
took not both Hitagi's weight, but also her feelings from her. It would be a
damn surprise if there was an existing legend out there that matched up with
this. Far more likely is that Nisio Isin thought that this would be an amusing
pun and invented a legend to go along with it.

The points I've made in this section also generally apply to Mayoi's Snail and
Nadeko's Constrictor.

## Snail

Again, it's difficult to make a strong claim that Mayoi's snail has no basis
in actual legend. Snails are not prominent features in Japanese legend,
though.

## Rainy Devil

The "Monkey's Paw" _does_ have a basis in real-life - a [short story by W. W.
Jacobs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey%27s_Paw) titled as such. And
that's the problem - Kanbaru's apparition _wasn't_ a Monkey's Paw, but rather
a Rainy Devil, which is an apparition possessing only superficial similarities
to the Monkey's Paw of Jacobs's story.

It's pretty clear here that Nisio Isin was deliberately playing with the
reader's expectations by having the characters themselves incorrectly identify
the arm as a Monkey's Paw - and then they go to visit Meme, who pulls the rug
out from under them, revealing that it was something else altogether. This
strongly suggests that the Rainy Devil is a creation of Nisio Isin's.

## Constrictor

To a certain extent, it's very difficult to show that the Constrictor (
_jagirinawa_ ) has no basis in legend, since there's nothing terribly unique
about it - it's a snake that possesses people. That's basically all there is
to it. Snakes are certainly common features of legend throughout the world (as
Meme points out), and I wouldn't be surprised if some group of people
somewhere in the world did believe in a constrictor snake that possessed
people.

Like with the crab, though, this is most likely a case of the author taking a
motif well-established in folklore and putting an original spin on it.

* * *

I'll update this answer later with more details. A few notes in the meanwhile:

  * Hanekawa's cat is certainly an invention of the author, as you point out.
  * Shinobu explicitly identifies Tsukihi's phoenix (the _shidenodori_ ) as having some unusual features that don't match up to the conventional conception of a phoenix.
  * Given that Karen's bee is a fabrication even in the context of the story, I'd imagine legends of it don't exist out here in the real world either.

And for Monogatari Second Season:

> \--There are no tigers in Japan. And besides, Hanekawa's tiger (the _kako_ )
> is far too punnable to be real, just like Hitagi's crab.  
>  \--Jiangshi are a real thing, though Monogatari jiangshis appear to differ
> from real-life jiangshis in some minor ways.  
>  \--Nadeko's _kuchinawa_ might be inspired by snake legends, but it's pretty
> obviously original for the most part.  
>  \--The apparition-eating darkness of Onimonogatari only makes sense in the
> context of the Monogatari world. It wouldn't make sense for it to be based
> on a real legend.




While it's difficult to prove a negative, and there's no telling where Nisio
Isin got his inspiration from, I would be willing to claim that that most of
the apparitions appearing in the Monogatari series aren't quite based on real-
life stories.

Broadly, one point in favor of this position is that other people on the
internet (in Japan) have also tried to find origins for the various
apparitions and failed. Given the popularity of Monogatari, this strongly
suggests that there indeed aren't any real-life bases for most of the
apparitions, though, of course, this doesn't amount to conclusive proof.

## Crab

Hitagi's crab is a difficult case to handle. Crabs are a semi-frequent feature
of Japanese folklore - see, for example, [the tale of the Crab and the
Monkey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crab_and_the_Monkey) (which Meme
mentions), or the legends surrounding the [Heike
crabs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heikegani), so we can't discard out-of-
hand the possibility that the "Weight Crab" ( _omoshikani_ ) has basis in
actual legend. Nonetheless, it seems improbable.

Meme claims that legends of the "Weight Crab" originated from peoples living
in the mountains of Kyushu. However, he goes on to point out that the areas
from which these legends originated - the mountainous parts of Oita and
Miyazaki - are not actually places where you will find any crabs. Meme brushes
this off, explaining that it's easier to concoct grand legends about crabs
when you don't have any actual crabs at hand.

I'm not convinced that this really makes sense in a real-world context, though
- do people tend to feature in their legends creatures that they have little
contact with? I'm no anthropologist, but it seems unlikely. Someone familiar
with the folklore of Kyushu would know more, I'm sure.

There are also some things about Hitagi's crab that just seem too convenient.
For example, its name is incredibly punnable in ways relevant to the plot - 思い
_omoi_ "thoughts" vs. 想い _omoi_ "feelings" vs. 重い _omoi_ "heavy". The
resolution of this arc is strongly related to the realization that the crab
took not both Hitagi's weight, but also her feelings from her. It would be a
damn surprise if there was an existing legend out there that matched up with
this. Far more likely is that Nisio Isin thought that this would be an amusing
pun and invented a legend to go along with it.

The points I've made in this section also generally apply to Mayoi's Snail and
Nadeko's Constrictor.

## Snail

Again, it's difficult to make a strong claim that Mayoi's snail has no basis
in actual legend. Snails are not prominent features in Japanese legend,
though.

## Rainy Devil

The "Monkey's Paw" _does_ have a basis in real-life - a [short story by W. W.
Jacobs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey%27s_Paw) titled as such. And
that's the problem - Kanbaru's apparition _wasn't_ a Monkey's Paw, but rather
a Rainy Devil, which is an apparition possessing only superficial similarities
to the Monkey's Paw of Jacobs's story.

It's pretty clear here that Nisio Isin was deliberately playing with the
reader's expectations by having the characters themselves incorrectly identify
the arm as a Monkey's Paw - and then they go to visit Meme, who pulls the rug
out from under them, revealing that it was something else altogether. This
strongly suggests that the Rainy Devil is a creation of Nisio Isin's.

## Constrictor

To a certain extent, it's very difficult to show that the Constrictor (
_jagirinawa_ ) has no basis in legend, since there's nothing terribly unique
about it - it's a snake that possesses people. That's basically all there is
to it. Snakes are certainly common features of legend throughout the world (as
Meme points out), and I wouldn't be surprised if some group of people
somewhere in the world did believe in a constrictor snake that possessed
people.

Like with the crab, though, this is most likely a case of the author taking a
motif well-established in folklore and putting an original spin on it.

* * *

I'll update this answer later with more details. A few notes in the meanwhile:

  * Hanekawa's cat is certainly an invention of the author, as you point out.
  * Shinobu explicitly identifies Tsukihi's phoenix (the _shidenodori_ ) as having some unusual features that don't match up to the conventional conception of a phoenix.
  * Given that Karen's bee is a fabrication even in the context of the story, I'd imagine legends of it don't exist out here in the real world either.

And for Monogatari Second Season:

> \--There are no tigers in Japan. And besides, Hanekawa's tiger (the _kako_ )
> is far too punnable to be real, just like Hitagi's crab.  
>  \--Jiangshi are a real thing, though Monogatari jiangshis appear to differ
> from real-life jiangshis in some minor ways.  
>  \--Nadeko's _kuchinawa_ might be inspired by snake legends, but it's pretty
> obviously original for the most part.  
>  \--The apparition-eating darkness of Onimonogatari only makes sense in the
> context of the Monogatari world. It wouldn't make sense for it to be based
> on a real legend.

