Amazake-babaa
yōkai of Japan
Amazake-babaa (甘(あま)酒(ざけ)婆(ばばあ), "amazake hag") or amazake banbā is an old woman yōkai from the folklore of Miyagi and Aomori prefectures in Japan. She is rumored to come to the doors of houses late at night and call out “Might you have any amazake?" in a childlike voice, but if anyone answers they fall ill with either smallpox or the common cold. She was known as the goddess of smallpox in a time when smallpox ran rampant in Japan. It is said that to keep her away, a cedar branch is placed in the doorway. Mothers give offerings to amazake-babaa in order to prevent their children from falling ill. A key difference between Amazake-babaa and amazake banbā is that amazake banbā tries to sell amazake while Amazake-babaa asks if a person has any and a sign saying "we do not like sake or amazake" will keep amazake banbā away.
A similar creature is known as the amazake-banbaa in the Yamanashi Prefecture. She tries to sell her sake and amazake door-to-door and will bring disease to those who answer. She will be repelled by a sign by the door that says "we do not like sake or amazake".
In the Kohinata neighborhood of Bunkyo City, Tokyo, Amazake-babaa is not a supernatural being but a human being from the neighborhood, a local amazake-seller who died of a common cold and was posthumously deified as a protector of children against diseases.
“Amazake-babaa” enters the record as yōkai of Japan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Amazake-babaa, yōkai and Japan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Amazake-babaa” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Amazake-babaa, yōkai and Japan provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2841423. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Amazake-babaa”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Amazake-babaa primary sources, Amazake-babaa archive and Amazake-babaa research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Amazake-babaa”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Amazake-babaa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.