Hungry Gaki

The myth

Gaki are the "hungry ghosts" of Buddhism, the Japanese form of India's preta. For greed, avarice or envy in life, they are reborn in a realm of endless hunger. They are drawn with huge swollen bellies and throats thin as a needle, so nothing can satisfy them, and sometimes food turns to fire in their mouths. The twelfth-century illustrated scroll Gaki-zōshi, now a national treasure, shows them unseen among the living. To relieve them, temples hold segaki, offerings of food and water to abandoned spirits, especially around Obon.

Why it has this power

A Common level-2 Darkness Undead with 700 ATK and 600 DEF: weak and desperate, pure emptiness. Darkness and Moon are the gloomy world they come from; Scarab, the constellation of the dead. It is one of the materials of the Rite of the Forgotten Battlefield, which raises the Gashadokuro of those who starved.

Did you know

In Japanese, gaki also became a slightly rude colloquial word for a brat, for always being hungry and making trouble.

Connections

• In Renji, Ronin of the Snowy Roads's deck

Where to get it

• Daily Offering: 0% per pack (Common 64% per card)
• Welcome Pack: 0.97% per pack (Common 70% per card)
• Traveler's Pack: 0.88% per pack · 5.2% in the themed pack (Common 64% per card)
• Bronze Reliquary: 0.86% per pack · 5.1% in the themed pack (Common 62% per card)
• Silver Reliquary: 0.67% per pack · 4% in the themed pack (Common 49% per card)
• Golden Reliquary: 0.46% per pack · 2.7% in the themed pack (Common 33% per card)
• Daily Showcase: Shows up on about 0.69% of days · 150 gold
• Craft with card dust: 40 dust
• Crossing of Myths: Can be offered as a reward during a crossing (the card stays in the crossing deck).

Sources

1. Kotto: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs (Project Gutenberg) — Lafcadio Hearn
2. Ghosts in Ancient Japan — World History Encyclopedia — Mark Cartwright