Chōchin-obake.

Chōchin-obake (提灯お化け, ちょうちんおばけ) is an aged paper lantern transformed into a face. The paper splits open into a mouth, a long tongue hangs out, and one or two eyes bulge from the upper half. Some versions sprout arms, legs, or even a torso, but the essential form is simple, a lantern that has learned to leer.

Its construction stays visible. Bamboo rib, paper body, and hanging shape remain intact even after animation. This is important because chōchin-obake belongs to the tsukumogami imagination, where the object is never fully replaced by the monster. The lantern becomes uncanny by remaining recognizably itself.

Chōchin-obake usually startle rather than attack. They swing into view, wag their tongues, and convert a familiar light source into a face. Later children's culture and haunted-house imagery leaned heavily into that comic shock, making the lantern ghost one of the most accessible yōkai in the repertoire.

Some traditions and theatrical associations complicate the harmless image. Kabuki and ukiyo-e linked ghostly lanterns to Yotsuya Kaidan and the apparition of Oiwa, suggesting that an ordinary lantern shape could also serve as the mask of a much more dangerous spirit. That distinction matters. The lantern ghost is usually mild, but the image of the haunted lantern can carry far darker presences behind it.