Toriyama Sekien

History
Toriyama Sekien (1712 – 1788) wass the pen-name of Sano Toyofusa, an 18th-century scholar, kyōka poet, and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. Born to a family of high-ranking servants to the Tokugawa shogunate, he was trained by Kanō school artists Kanō Gyokuen and Kanō Chikanobu. After retiring from service to the shogunate, he became a teacher to numerous apprentices in poetry and painting. He was among the first to apply Kanō techniques to ukiyo-e printmaking, inventing key new techniques along the way, such as fuki-bokashi, which allowed for replicating color gradations.

Sekien is best known for his mass-produced illustrated books of yōkai that had appeared in Hyakki Yagyō monster parade scrolls. While most of these depictions are of well known entities in local folklore, some, most numerously from his work "Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro", have no known origins and are commonly thought to have been original creations of Sekien's.

Artifacts of Japan
Japan remains one of the few major civilizations to have never hosted an iteration of the Warehouse. This does not, however, mean artifacts ceased to exist there. In fact, due mostly to it's years of isolation and rich culture, Japan is suspected as being a largely untapped hoard of artifact energy.

Due to the lack of an official institution like the Warehouse for collecting artifacts, tales of magical and possessed items known as Tsukumogami tended to crop up frequently, to the extent such stories became not only widespread but also generally accepted by the populace as true. It wasn't until the mid 19th century when more of the Western world, and the Warehouse agents that traveled with them, gained more and more access to the country did such tales begin to die down. To this day, however, and especially among the older generations, notions of mystic objects and malevolent spirits are still taken very seriously by some.

With no organization collecting and controlling problematic artifacts, such duties were often carried out by holy men, who had means of projecting enough peaceful energy into artifacts to soothe them. Calmed artifacts were suspected to be taken into shrines or temples, and a large number are still suspected to remain there today.

Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro
Much of our knowledge of artifacts in pre-Western Japan comes from Toriyama, who was known by Warehouse records to have been privy to the nature of artifacts. Not a collector himself, but a cataloger, he created many illustrations of what are believed to be artifacts collected by the monks and priests he met. His illustrations are vague, but provide what is currently the best surviving record of Japanese artifacts, many of which are still unknown to the Warehouse today.

His original scrolls were collected by Warehouse 12 agents during a mission to Tokyo following reports of an umbrella taunting people on rainy nights. The scrolls were acquired from a local monk who had also been tracking the artifact. The umbrella, dubbed the Kasa-Obake, was safely returned to the Warehouse and the scrolls were kept for further use.

The collection of these artifacts is not considered a priority, but all reports of artifact activity in Japan is to be cross-referenced with the list for any potential correlations.

Known Tsukumogami
=Collected= Kasa-Obake: An umbrella that hovers just out of reach or people during rainy nights. May react violently if grabbed. Biwa-bokuboku: A biwa lute that strums itself in the presence of heartbreak, bringing guilt to the breaker and comfort to the broken. Boroboroton: Futon bedding that enshrouds and suffocates those who fall asleep on it. Chōchin-obake: A paper lantern that "feeds" on fear, following people at night and illuminating suddenly to startle them. Reports of illustrations on the paper vary, may mean more than one exist. Ittan-momen: A bolt of cloth with predatory snake-like behavior when unwound. Remains inert while rolled. Koto-furunushi: A koto that, if not played regularly, grows more strings that seek to entwine and draw in the melodically inclined. Draws itself to places with frequent music. Menreiki: A chest of Gigaku masks. Forces the wearer to take on the role they depict. Considered bifurcated, records indicate 66 masks, though only 38 are in Warehouse custody. =Status Unknown= Bakezōri: Sandals that make the wearer walk while asleep. May be related or to the same artifact as Bodhidharma's Slippers. Ichiren-bozu: Prayer beads. May be related to monks who used them to calm artifacts. Jatai: Decorative cloths. No information is known. Kameosa: Sake jar. May be related to stories about Shojo. Kosode-no-te: Kimono robe. Thought to be self-animating. No solid information known. Kurayarō and Abumi-guchi: Saddle and Stirrup, known to let the user move as though riding an invisible horse. Location unknown, as is nature of the relationship between the artifacts. Kyōrinrin: Paper scrolls. Location unknown, may have been used to record important documents. Effects and historical significance in question. Minowaraji: Straw coat. No information known. Morinji-no-okama: Tea kettle. Make be related or identical to the Teamaster's Teapot.