Dodomeki

A dodomeki (百々目鬼) is a yōkai. Her appearance is that of a woman whose long arms are covered with hundreds of bird eyes.

This appearance is the result of a curse for stealing money. It is also called the todomeki .

Dodomeki Mythology

The dodomeki were first described by Toriyama Sekien, an eighteenth century Japanese scholar. The fact that the dodomeki has long arms reflects a Japanese belief that those with this body feature tend to steal things.

The bird's eyes growing out of the dodomeki's arm are a reference to the Japanese dōsen, a copper coin with a hole in the middle that is commonly known as a chōmoku (bird's eye).

The first appearance of this creature occurs in Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. It is stated there that the origins of the creature are found in the Kankan-gaishi, a book that may never have existed. Instead, it may have been inspired by the Dōmeki (百目鬼)  .

Legends of Dodomeki

Meeting with the priest Chitoku

During the Muromachi era, a priest named Chitoku was called to investigate a series of unexplained fires that broke out at a village temple near Mount Myōjin.

He discovered a woman covered in a robe and realized that she was the same dodomeki that Fujiwara no Hidesato had fought four hundred years earlier.

She had come back to suck out her remaining toxic fumes and blood that she had lost in her last battle with Hidesato.

The temple was built over the site of the battle, so the dodomeki started a series of fires to scare off all the priests.

However, after constantly hearing Chitoku preach every time she passed by the temple, the dodomeki had a spiritual awakening and swore never to commit evil deeds again.

Dodomeki In popular culture

This yokai makes several appearances in popular culture, as for example in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

In the Yo-kai Watch franchise, the Todomeki is a black humanoid monster with thirteen eyes and horns.

He is known as Eyesoar in the English dub. In the light novel series and later in the manga adaptation of Re:Monster, one of the hobgoblin members of the monster clan transformed into a dodomeki.

Finally, the Eye Guy alien from the Ben 10 series is depicted with long arms covered with eyes.