▲ Leans unlucky (a warning) Traditionally a warning — read it as pointing to what to watch, not as doom
The faceless yokai: not knowing others' true feelings, or losing your sense of self.
Category: Japanese yokai (how to read this category)
Psychology
A face with no eyes, nose or mouth embodies the fear of not reading someone's heart. Faces are how we understand each other, so losing them is deeply unsettling. If your own face was blank, you may feel you have lost your sense of self.
Folklore and history
Noppera-bo were said to be foxes, tanuki or badgers in disguise. In Lafcadio Hearn's "Mujina", a man flees a faceless woman on a night slope, only for the noodle seller he runs to to show the same blank face. Fear returning just as relief arrives became a classic pattern.
Haunted-spot exploration tends to mean a lot of gear — flashlight, camera, bear bell, work gloves, insect repellent — and this tote's water-repellent paraffin canvas and large capacity, plus grommets for cinching the top shut, make it easy to carry your whole kit from car to site in one trip. Its box-like, self-standing shape also keeps the contents from tipping over in the car.
Takagi KANUCHI OUTDOOR Paraffin Canvas Large Tote Bag, Khaki
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This site's view
In this site's view, whose face vanished is everything. A loved one's blank face means honest exchange between you has thinned. A crowd of blank faces reflects loneliness in a crowd or organisation. Sometimes it is not that they have no face, but that we have stopped looking.
Going deeper: our reading
At New Year, Japanese children play fukuwarai: blindfolded, they place paper eyes, nose and mouth on a blank outline of a face. Before the pieces go down, the face is a smiling noppera-bo. In this site's reading, a faceless figure can also be a blank page waiting for a face. When you haven't decided what expression to wear in a new job or circle, a featureless face may appear. If eyes and a mouth slowly surfaced, a relationship is taking shape. If you were drawing the face yourself, you may want to choose your own expression rather than copy others'. This is our speculation, but if facing it did not frighten you, you may be learning to enjoy a future still unwritten.
What to do on waking
Look at people's faces rather than screens when you talk today. Check your own expression in the mirror and lift the corners of your mouth.
In this scene
- ◎Good It helps you or gives treasure: like the zashiki-warashi, luck is coming (good)
- ▲Warn Tricked or taken: a hidden trap, or words to doubt (warning)
- Seeing what it really is: a fear becomes clear and fades
- It felt good: the lucky reading gets stronger
- ▲Warn It felt frightening or painful: the warning reading gets stronger — rest first
- The same dream again and again: something your mind has not settled yet
Turning a bad dream
In Japan, people once tried to turn a worrying dream for the better: a baku charm under the pillow, telling the dream to a nandina bush, or reciting an old dream-turning poem. Read the column on dream trading and dream-turning
Work gloves that protect your hands at a ruin or old mine site full of rubble and glass, while still letting you do fine work like filming or taking notes.
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FAQ
Q. Is dreaming of a Noppera-bo a good or bad sign?
A. Traditionally a warning — read it as pointing to what to watch, not as doom. The faceless yokai: not knowing others' true feelings, or losing your sense of self.
Q. Why do I keep dreaming of a Noppera-bo?
A. A recurring dream usually points to something your mind has not settled yet. Research suggests such dreams tend to stop once the underlying worry is resolved. Keeping a dream diary helps you notice what triggers it.
Q. What should I do after dreaming of a Noppera-bo?
A. Look at people's faces rather than screens when you talk today. Check your own expression in the mirror and lift the corners of your mouth.
Related dream essays
- True Dreams and Reverse Dreams: Why We Read Dreams Backwards
- Buying Dreams, Turning Dreams: A Japanese History of Dream Trading and Dream Charms
Read this dream with your own scene in the Dream Dictionary →
More dreams in "Japanese yokai"
- A Tengu
- An Oni
- A Snow Woman
- The Night Parade
- Foxfire
- A Rokurokubi
- A One-Eyed Boy
- An Umbrella Ghost
- A Tool Spirit
- A Nurikabe
- An Ittan-momen
- Sunakake-baba & Konaki-jiji
※ Dream interpretation here is entertainment drawing on psychology and folklore — it is not scientifically proven. "This site's view" is our own interpretation.
