The waira (ãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂ) is a Japanese yà Âkai from Japanese emaki (handscrolls) such as the Hyakkai Zukan by Sawaki Suushi and books such as Gazu Hyakki Yagyà  (1776) by Sekien Toriyama.
In the Hyakkai Zukan (1737, Sawaki Suushi), Bakemonozukushi (Ã¥ÂÂç©ãÂ¥ãÂÂãÂÂ) (artist and year unknown, owned by Rei Kagaya), the Bakemono Emaki (Ã¥ÂÂç©絵巻) (artist and year unknown, owned by the Kawasaki City Museum), the Hyakki Yagyà  Emaki (1832, Oda Yoshitarà Â), and Bakemono no e (c. 1660, artist unknown, Harry F. Bruning Collection, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University) it is depicted with the body of a giant ox and thick sharp claws growing on each of its front legs. Each of these sources have no explanatory text besides their name, and furthermore there do not exist any documents recording any folk legends about them, so it is unknown what kind of yà Âkai these were intending to depict. All of the pictures depict only the upper body, and there have been no pictures found that depict its lower half, so it is unknown what its whole body looks like.
According to the Edo Period writing Kiyà « Shà Âran (å¬ÂéÂÂç¬Â覧), it can be seen that one of the yà Âkai that it notes is depicted in the Bakemono-e (Ã¥ÂÂç©絵) drawn by Kà Âhà Âgen Motonobu is one by the name of "waira."
Starting in the Shà Âwa and Heisei periods, yà Âkai-related literature and children's yà Âkai picture book references started to give three kinds of explanations, that they are a yà Âkai of unknown true identity, that they are a large yà Âkai that live in the mountains and use the large claws on their front legs to dig up small animals like mogura (moles) to eat, and that they are a large yà Âkai in the mountains that attack and eat humans, among other explanations.
The art historian Nobuo Tsuji, writing about the Bakemonozukushi (artist and year unknown, owned by Rei Kagaya), notes that the picture of the "waira" in this emaki (in the emaki, it is written ã¯ãÂÂãÂÂ, see image) depicts a "green monster that looks like a changed toad," and some explanatory text starting in the Heisei period have also stated that it is a toad that has gained spiritual power from age, and that their bodies are green, and so on.
The yà Âkai researcher Katsumi Tada notes that "wai" (çÂÂ) means "fear" or "dread," and "wairai" (çÂÂç¾) means "to grow meek from fear" or "become afraid on the spot," which is related to the waira's groveling appearance. Furthermore, both the Hyakkai Zukan and the Gazu Hyakki Yagyà  put the "waira" alongside the "otoroshi", so it can be interpreted that the "waira" (æÂÂãÂÂ, fear) and "otoroshi" (æÂÂãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂ, dread) are two yà Âkai that make up a pair.
There is the idea that waira were spotted in the mountains eating moles (mogura), with males being brown and females being red, but according to the yà Âkai researchers Katsumi Tada and Kenji Murakami, this idea originally came from a children's book series "Obake Bunko" (ãÂÂã°ãÂÂæÂÂ庫, "Monster Library") (1976, Taihei Publications) by Norio Yamada where there is an entry on the "Waira" in one of the volumes, so this is something that Yamada made up. However, Yamada asserts that he did not simply make it up, and simply forgot the original source, but did see it from somewhere.
The Bakemonozukushi Emaki (Ã¥ÂÂãÂÂç©尽ãÂÂ絵巻) (from the Edo Period, now in private possession and entrusted to a museum of the Fukuoka Prefecture), considered to be a yà Âkai emaki that was made for putting captions on previously existing yà Âkai pictures seen in emakimono, the otoroshi was introduced under the name of "ushi-kawazu" (çÂÂãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂ) (for unknown reasons, all the yà Âkai in this emaki had their names changed). In this caption, they are stated to live in ponds and eat humans, but this is not seen in any other references or legends.