Yama-Jijii

Yama-Jijii (山爺 Yama-Jijii, lit. Mountain Geezer), also known as Yamanji, is a mountain Yōkai who often lives in GeGeGe Forest. In the manga chapter Binbō-Gekigaka, a painting of Yama-Jijii with a painting of Hitotsume-Kozō materialized when they were drew with a special pen which has been treasured by Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji's ancestors and they inherited. 
==Appearance==
Yama-Jijii has a large, oblong-shaped head, that is usually depicted as pale beige, or brown with one eye, usually with a ring around it, in the middle of his face. Two different sized nostrils and a backwards J-shaped mouth with two individual teeth sticking up behind his bottom lip, both usually colored as red, but some adaptations make them black. His entire body is covered in a straw raincoat, with only his arms and one leg are shown. He is rather short, usually being slightly taller than a young adolescent.
In the 1996 anime, His pale beige head is noticeably larger than most of his body, his eye is white and surrounded by an orange ring, one of his nostrils is smaller and under the other, his lips are pink and the inside to both are black. His straw raincoat is also ruffled around his neck.
Within the 2007 anime, Yama-Jijii's head is brown, his eye is green and surrounded by a black ring with several cracks around it, his lips are yellow and the inside and nostrils are red and his teeth are more triangular. His straw raincoat is noticeably longer than most adaptions.
In the 2018 anime, his head has a more defined appearance, having a more pale wooden-like exterior, with more noticeable holes around his pale beige face. His eye is white and is surrounded by a thick brown ring with several cracks around it, green moss also appears around his face, his lips are yellow and the inside of his mouth is red. He still has his straw raincoat that covers most of his body, but it has a little tied knot in the front, under his head. Unlike in other adaptations, he is much larger than others having towered over a child like Yūta.
==Personality==
Not much of Yama-Jijii's personality is known, due to his few roles, but in most adaptations he is shown to be rather harmless. He is rather cowardly once he realizes how grave the dangers he is in. Nonetheless, he is amongst the peaceful yōkai throughout many adaptations.
In the 1996 anime, he is shown to be rather scatterbrained, seemingly always in a daze, being easily distracted by other things such as chasing after a butterfly. Unlike in previous adaptations, he is unaware of the danger he is in, as he continues to do what he's doing as his colleagues realize what they've been hired to do. He is however still cooperative with whoever he's working with, helping his fellow "assassins" to kill Kitarō, despite their incompetence.
The 2018 anime however makes him more formidable, being a serious threat unlike in other adaptations. Here he is quick to rage and is persistent to chase after Yūta, once he stole one of his fruit. After calming down, he forgives Yūta, as he is a child, but warns him to never to do it and gives him advice that "even yōkai have rules too".
==History==
===Manga===
Yama-Jijii first appears as one of the yōkai Nezumi-Otoko brings for Kitarō to ask to help against the Western Yōkai. Like most of the others, he disappears as soon as he realizes the danger involved. In this appearance alone, he had two eyes.
Yama-Jijii continue to make mostly background appearances in both the manga and anime. In Saishinban GeGeGe no Kitarō, he was at the GeGeGe Forest banquet. He filled the cup of the boy who came along with Kitarō.
===1968 Anime===
He first appears in the 1968 anime in episode #10, The Great Yōkai War (Part 1).
===1996 Anime===
He appears in episode #113 of the fourth anime, Kitarō vs. The Three Assassins!. In this episode, Yama-Jijii is one of the Three Assassins hired by Shu-no-Bon for Nurarihyon. It's never clear what he is thinking as he seems to always be in a daze. His assassination attempt merely consisted of him throwing acorns at Kitarō.GeGeGe no Kitarō (1996): Episode 113
===2007 Anime===
In the fifth anime he takes part in Yōkai Sports Meet, as one of the many participants of the sports festival, representing the Western Japan team.GeGeGe no Kitarō (2007): Episode 25 Later he is one of the chosen 47 Yōkai Warriors and represents Kōchi Prefecture.
He later appears in GeGeGe no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!. Yama-Jijii appears as one of the multitude of Yōkai parading through cities due to Yato-no-Kami's influence. He is later returned to where he came from after Hana agrees to follow Yato-no-Kami. Later, during the battle against Yato-no-Kami, Yobuko calls for help from all over Japan, the remaining 47 Yōkai Warriors are revealed once their mark begins to shine. Among those are Yama-Jijii, who notices his mark appearing between his mouth and eye. Afterwards his power is sent to aid Kitarō in defeating Yato-no-Kami.
Due to the fifth anime adaptation's sudden cancellation at 100 episodes, he is among the 23 Yōkai Warriors that were not revealed aside from the movie.GeGeGe no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!.
===2018 Anime===
In the sixth anime series, he appears as a resident of the GeGeGe Forest in the episode The Taboo of the Mysterious Forest. When Yūta picks one of the berries off of his tree, he becomes enraged and grows to giant. He then starts to sprout numerous black arms from the ground and capturing yōkai at random, including Nezumi-Otoko and Konaki-Jijii. Once Medama-Oyaji realizes Yūta took one his berries, he tells Yūta to return it, which calms Yama-Jijii down. Later, when Yūta apologizes to him, Yama-Jijii forgives him but warns that "Yōkai have rules too". He then marks Yūta's palm with a warning mark and sends him on his way.GeGeGe no Kitarō (2018): Episode 4
He is among the crowd of yōkai gathered around the GeGeGe House, trying to drive Agnès out of the forest. He listens to Medama-Oyaji's warning that if they drive her out then the tragedy Malay yōkai will repeat somewhere else. Soon followed by Kitarō as he explains how grave the consequences are if Japan becomes a part of Backbeard's empire, causing the crowd to look at one another. Until their attention is drawn to Kitarō as he stands on his resolve to fight.GeGeGe no Kitarō (2018): Episode 35
==Powers and Abilities==
Yama-Jijii is usually depicted as being rather harmless, not showing any offensive or defensive capabilities in most adaptations.
Size-Shifting: Within the sixth anime, Yama-Jijii is capable of growing to tremendous sizes, towering over GeGeGe Forest when he was enraged and caused a rampage. He is also later show to be able to revert back to his normal size after calming down.
Black Arm Generation: When enraged Yama-Jiji is able to sprout a multitude of black arms out of the ground, indiscriminately grabbing nearby yōkai. These black arms disappear after he calms down.
==Legend==
Yama-Jijii are one-eyed and one-legged yōkai living deep within the mountains. Everywhere they go they leave behind a footprint around a foot long. While they appear to have only one eye they have another eye that’s extremely small. Their teeth are strong enough to bite off monkey heads like radishes, so even wolves were wary of them, a fact that hunters used to their advantage by taming them with bait. They have a loud voice strong enough to shake leaves off trees and move stones and stories tell of a Yama-Jijii challenging villagers to a shouting contest, usually ending with a gun being fired in the Yama-Jijii’s ear under the pretense of shouting.
==Trivia==
*Yama-Jijii's appearance may have been derived from a mask of a seal Inua of the Bering Sea Inuit.Shigeru Mizuki Original Picture Summary Japanese Yokai Edition
==References==
==Navigation==
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