In MIZUKI's pictures of specters including the above-mentioned comic, Sunakake-babaa is depicted as an old woman wearing traditional Japanese clothing as suggested by the name, but according to Natsuhiko KYOGOKU, a scholar of specters, the appearance is based on a mask used in a local performing art of Sadoga-shima Island called ondeko.
また同漫画をはじめとする水木の妖怪画では、その名の通り和服姿の老婆として描かれているが、妖怪研究家・京極夏彦によれば佐渡島の郷土芸能・鬼太鼓の面がモデルとされる。