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Yokai

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The ghost of Oiwa manifesting herself as a lantern obake. From the classic ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. Print by Shunkosai Hokuei
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The ghost of Oiwa manifesting herself as a lantern obake. From the classic ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. Print by Shunkosai Hokuei
are a class of obake, creatures in Japanese folklore ranging from the evil oni to the mischievous kitsune or snow woman Yuki-onna. Some possess part animal and part human features (e.g. Kappa and Tengu). Yōkai generally have a sort of spiritual or supernatural power, and so encounters with human beings tend to be dangerous. Yōkai also have different motives and agendas from human beings, which are often completely incomprehensible.  Some modern stories tell of yōkai breeding with human beings to produce hanyō.
Japanese folklorists and historians use yōkai as "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants". In Edo period, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien, created a lot of yōkai inspired by folklore or their own ideas, and present day not a few yōkai created by them (e.g. Kameosa and Amikiri, see below) wrongly considered as a legendary origin.#redirect

Some yōkai simply avoid human beings; they generally inhabit secluded areas far from human dwellings. Other yōkai, however, choose to live near human settlements out of some strange attraction to mankind; perhaps they are drawn by the warmth of human houses, or the oil that humans keep to feed their fires. Yōkai are traditionally associated with fire, the direction northeast, and the season of summer, when the spirit world is closest to the world of humans. Yōkai and obake are often depicted in guises as much humorous as terrifying.

Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki popularized many types of yōkai in his works since the 1960's (e.g. one-eyed yōkai superhero Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro). Lafcadio Hearn's collection of Japanese ghost stories entitled includes stories of yūrei and yōkai such as Yuki-onna.

Contents

Types

There are a wide variety of yōkai in Japanese mythology. In general, yōkai is a broad term, and can be used to encompass virtually all monsters and supernatural beings, even including creatures from Western mythology on occasion (e.g., the German bugbear is often included in Japanese mythology to the point that some mistakenly believe it originates from said myths).

\"Ghostly zoology\"

In Japan, there can be found a good number of animals that are thought to have magic of their own. Most of these are , shapeshifters, which often imitate humans, mostly women. Some of the better known animal yokai include the following:

Oni

One of the most well-known aspects of Japanese folklore is the oni, which is a sort of mountain-dwelling ogre, usually depicted with red, blue, brown or black skin, two horns on its head, a wide mouth filled with fangs, and wearing nothing but a tigerskin loincloth. It often carries an iron club or a giant sword. Oni are mostly depicted as evil, but can occasionally be the embodiment of an ambivalent natural force. They are, like many obake, associated with the direction northeast.

Tsukumogami

Tsukumogami are an entire class of yōkai and obake, comprising ordinary household items that have come to life on the anniversary of their one-hundredth birthday. This virtually unlimited classification includes Bakezouri (straw sandals), Karakasa (old umbrellas), Kameosa (old sake jars), and Morinji-no-kama (tea kettles).

Human transformations

There are a large number of yōkai which were originally ordinary human beings, transformed into something horrific and grotesque usually by some sort of extreme emotional state. The , for example, grows an extra mouth on the back of her head, which is unknowingly fed by strands of her hair acting as tentacles of sorts. This is caused by a woman's extreme anxiety over her figure, and is only one example of extreme emotions causing supernatural changes in human beings. Other examples of human transformations or humanoid yōkai are the rokuro-kubi (humans able to elongate their necks during the night), the ohaguro-bettari (a figure, usually female, that turns to reveal a face with only a blackened mouth), dorotabou (the risen corpse of a farmer, who haunts his abused land), among many others.

Miscellaneous

There are countless number of yōkai that are too bizarre to fit into broad categories. These are usually some sort of perversion or transformation of creatures found in ordinary life, or are entirely new types of goblin-like creatures. Some examples are the abura-sumashi, an old, smug-faced and potato-headed goblin who drinks oil; the amikiri, a creature that exists for no other purpose than to cut mosquito netting; and the ushioni, a cow demon that is sometimes depicted with the body of a giant spider.

Popular culture

Various kinds of yōkai are encountered in folklore and folklore-inspired art and literature, particularly manga and Japanese horror. The man to whom most of the credit should go for keeping yōkai in the popular imagination (at least in Japan) is Shigeru Mizuki, the manga creator of such series as Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro and Sanpei no Kappa. With the exception of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, however, Mizuki's works have yet to be translated into English.

Anime and Manga

Yōkai have appeared in numerous anime and manga series, including:

Media and Other Works

Aside from appearances in anime and manga, yōkai have appeared in a number of other media as well. Amongst these are:

Foreign Works

In the English-speaking world, knowledge of yōkai is slowly, but surely, developing a dedicated following. Hawaiian folklorist Glen Grant was known for his "Obake Files", a series of reports he developed about supernatural incidents in Hawaii; the grand bulk of these incidents and reports were of Japanese origin, though in retelling have been much modified from their original forms in Japanese folklore. Additionally, Mexican-American folklorist and author Alfred Avila included "La Japonesa", a story about a nekomusume, in his collection Mexican Ghost Tales of the Southwest.

See also

External links

 Japanese Mythology
Stories and Myths:
Kojiki | | Nihon Shoki | Otogizoshi | Yotsuya Kaidan
Divinities:
List of divinities in Japanese mythology | Kami & Megami | Seven Lucky Gods
Legendary Figures:
Abe no Seimei | Hidari Jingoro | Kintaro
Momotaro | Nezumi Kozo | Tamamo no Mae | Tomoe Gozen | Urashima Tarō
Mythical and Sacred Locations:
Horai | Mt. Hiei | Mt. Fuji
Rashōmon | Ryugu-jo | Suzakumon | Takamagahara | Yomi
Religions | Sacred Objects | Creatures and Spirits

 

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