 In Ihara Saikaku's early Edo period ukiyo book the , an oil lantern-drinking baby also appears, but it's also been noted to be something made up.Like the abura-nase and the ubagabi, there are many yōkai legends related to an attachment to oil.In this background, oil was a valuable resource used as food and as illumination in Japan, becoming even more of a necessity since the middle ages due to an improvement in refining technology, leading to the theory that these yōkai were born as a warning against wasting oil by licking and sucking it.