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Gagoze from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

Gagoze(元興寺) or Gagō is a reiki, or demon ghost, which according to legend inhabited the bell tower of Gango-ji, a temple in Nara Prefecture from which its name is derived. It appears as a red-skinned demon in monk robes that crawls on the ground.

The legend, originating in the 9th century Nihon Ryōiki, claims that a thunder god fell from the sky and was discovered by a farmer and his wife. The god promised the couple a son with great strength if they helped him return to the sky, which they did. Shortly after, they bore a son who was exceptionally strong, born with snakes around his head. This son became an apprentice at Gango-ji temple. Shortly after his arrival, the bodies of apprenticed children began appearing regularly near the bell tower of the temple. The farmers’ son decided to intervene and stop the demon Gagoze that was killing the children. The boy waited at night for the demon to appear until it was close enough that he could grab its hair. He caught hold, but it struggled so hard to escape that its scalp tore free in the strong boy’s hand. Later following the trail of blood to its end, priests found a wicked servant’s grave, discovering that the servant’s ghost had become the demon Gagoze. It never returned to the temple and the boy grew to become an excellent priest, later taking the name Dōjō.