Yōkai - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

monsters in Japanese folklore

Japanese folklore

The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yōkai , yūrei ,...

. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them. Often they possess animal features, (such as the Kappa, which is similar to a turtle, or the Tengu
Tengu
are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...

which has wings), other times they can appear mostly human, some look like inanimate objects and others have no discernible shape. Yōkai usually have a spiritual supernatural power, with shapeshifting

Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...

being one of the most common. Yōkai that have the ability to shapeshift are called obake

Obake

and are a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting....

.

Japanese folklorists and historians use yōkai as "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants". In the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien

Toriyama Sekien

thumb|200px| was an 18th century scholar and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. He was the teacher of Utamaro and, before taking up printmaking, a painter of the Kanō school. Toriyama is most famous for his attempt to catalogue all species of yōkai in the Hyakki Yakō series.-References:...

, created yōkai inspired by folklore or their own ideas, and in the present, several yōkai created by them (e.g. Kameosa and Amikiri, see below) are wrongly considered as being of legendary origin.

Types

There are a wide variety of yōkai in Japanese folklore. In general, yōkai is a broad term, and can be used to encompass virtually all monsters and supernatural beings, even including creatures from Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an folklore on occasion (e.g., the English

English folklore

English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...

bugbear

Bugbear

A bugbear is a legendary creature or type of hobgoblin comparable to the bogeyman, bogey, bugaboo, and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children. Its name is derived from an old Celtic word bug for evil spirit or goblin...

is often included in Japanese folklore to the point that some mistakenly believe it originates from said folklore).

Shapeshifting yōkai (Obake)

A good number of indigenous Japanese animals are thought to have magical qualities. Most of these are , shapeshifters, which often imitate humans, mostly women. Some of the better known animal yōkai include the following:

Tanuki
Tanuki
is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...

(raccoon dog
Raccoon Dog
The raccoon dog , also known as the magnut or tanuki, is a canid indigenous to east Asia. It is the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes...

s)
Kitsune
Kitsune
is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...

(fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

es)
Hebi (snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

s)
Mujina
Mujina
is an old Japanese term primarily referring to the badger. In some regions the term refers instead to the Japanese raccoon dog or to introduced civets...

(badger
Badger
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...

s)
Ōkami
Okami
is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia...

(wolves)
Bakeneko
Bakeneko
A is, in Japanese folklore, a cat with supernatural abilities akin to those of the fox or raccoon dog. A cat may become a bakeneko in a number of ways: it may reach a certain age, be kept for a certain number of years, grow to a certain size, or be allowed to keep a long tail. In the last case,...

(cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

s)
Tsuchigumo
Tsuchigumo
The , also called , were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in the Japanese Alps until at least the Asuka period. The name means "ground spider", likely due to perceived physical traits that were later exaggerated or embellished....

and jorōgumo
Jorogumo
Jorōgumo is a type of Yōkai, a creature, ghost or goblin of Japanese folklore. According to some stories, a Jorōgumo is a spider that can change its appearance into that of a seductive woman....

(spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

s)
Inugami
Inugami
In Japanese mythology an is a type of , similar to a familiar spirit, resembling, and usually originating from, a dog, and most commonly carrying out vengeance or acting as guardians on behalf of the inugami-mochi, or "inugami owner"...

(dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s)

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 kanabo 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
Obake
and are a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting....

, associated with the direction northeast.

Tsukumogami

Tsukumogami
Tsukumogami
Understood by many Western scholars as a type of Japanese yōkai, the Tsukumogami was a concept popular in Japanese folklore as far back as the tenth century, used in the spread of Shingon Buddhism...

are an entire class of yōkai and obake, comprising ordinary household items that have come to life on the one-hundredth anniversary of their birthday. This virtually unlimited classification includes:

Bakezouri
Bakezouri
is a creature from Japanese folklore. It is a straw zōri sandal which has been transformed into a tsukumogami, a yōkai which was once an ordinary household item...

(straw sandals)
Biwa-bokuboku ( a lute)
Bura-bura (A paper lantern)
Karakasa
Kasa-obake
, or Karakasa Obake or Karakasa Kozo, are a type of Tsukumogami, a folk legend about a form of Japanese spirit that originate from objects reaching their 100th year of existence, thus becoming animate. Karakasa in particular are Spirits of Parasols that reach the century milestone...

(old umbrellas)
Kameosa (old sake jars)
Morinji-no-kama (tea kettles)
Mokmoku Ren (Paper screens, with eyes)

Human transformations

There are a large number of yōkai who were originally ordinary human beings, transformed into something horrific and grotesque usually during an extremely emotional state. Women suffering from intense jealousy, for example, were thought to transform into the female oni represented by hannya
Hannya
The Hannya mask is a mask used in Japanese Noh theater, representing a jealous female demon or serpent. It possesses two sharp bull-like horns, metallic eyes, and a leering mouth split from ear to ear.-Origin of the name:...

masks.
Other examples of human transformations or humanoid yōkai are:

Rokuro-kubi (humans able to elongate their necks during the night)
Ohaguro-bettari (a figure, usually female, that turns to reveal a face with only a blackened mouth)
Futakuchi-onna
Futakuchi-onna
A is a type of yōkai or Japanese monster. They are characterized by their two mouths – a normal one located on her face and second one on the back of the head beneath the hair...

(a woman with a voracious extra mouth on the back of her head)
Dorotabō (the risen corpse of a farmer, who haunts his abused land)

Other

Some yōkai are extremely specific in their habits, for instance:

Azuki Arai (a yōkai who is always found washing azuki beans).
Akaname
Akaname
The is a monster from Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yakō, likely based on a creature called aka-neburi from the , an Edo period story collection....

(only found in dirty bathrooms and spends its time licking the filth left by the untidy owners).
Ashiarai Yashiki (A gargantuan foot that appears in rooms and demands the terrified home owner washes it)
Tofu Kozo (a small monk who carries a plate with a block of tofu).

In media

Various kinds of yōkai are encountered in folklore and folklore-inspired art and literature.
Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...

's collection of Japanese ghost stories entitled Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
, often shortened to Kwaidan, is a book by Lafcadio Hearn that features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects...

includes stories of yūrei

Yurei

are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, 幽 , meaning "faint" or "dim" and 霊 , meaning "soul" or "spirit." Alternative names include 亡霊 meaning ruined or departed spirit, 死霊 meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing 妖怪 or お化け...

and yōkai such as Yuki-onna

Yuki-onna

is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, and animation. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba , but they are not the same.-Appearance:...

, and is one of the first Western publications of its kind. In Japan, yōkai are particularly prevalent in manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

, anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

and Japanese horror. Shigeru Mizuki

Shigeru Mizuki

is a Japanese manga author, most known for his Japanese horror manga GeGeGe no Kitaro . A specialist in stories of yōkai, he is considered a master of the genre...

, the manga creator of such series as GeGeGe no Kitaro and Kappa no Sanpei, keeps yōkai in the popular imagination. With the exception of three volumes of GeGeGe no Kitaro, however, Mizuki's works have yet to be translated into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.
Yōkai have continued to be a common theme in modern works of fiction. They served as the stars in the 1960s Yokai Monsters
Yokai Monsters
Yokai Monsters is a series of Japanese children's movies created in the 1960s.There were originally three movies made:* Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare * Yokai Monsters: One Hundred Monsters...

film series, which was loosely remade in 2005 as Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike

is a highly prolific and controversial Japanese filmmaker. He has directed over seventy theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. In the years 2001 and 2002 alone, Miike is credited with directing fifteen productions...

's The Great Yokai War. They often play major roles in Japanese fiction.

Anime and manga

Amatsuki
Amatsuki
is an ongoing manga series by Shinobu Takayama, serialized in Monthly Comic Zero Sum. A 13 episode anime adaption produced by Studio Deen premiered on April 4, 2008.-Plot:...
Ghost Stories
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni
, subtitled The Unforgiving Flowers Blossom in the Dead of Night, is a Japanese manga written by Ryukishi07 of 07th Expansion and illustrated by Ichirō Tsunohazu. It began serialization in the May 2010 issue of Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine...
InuYasha
InuYasha
, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...
Kanokon
Kanokon
is a Japanese light novel series by Katsumi Nishino, with illustrations by Koin. The first novel was released on October 31, 2005, and, as of December 21, 2010, fifteen volumes have been published by Media Factory under their MF Bunko J label...
Karas
Karas (anime)
is a six-part original video animation. Tatsunoko Production produced it to commemorate its 40th anniversary of anime production. Each Karas episode was first televised in Japan as a pay-per-view program from March 25, 2005, to August 3, 2007, before being released onto DVDs...
Kamisama Kiss
Kaze no Stigma
Kaze no Stigma
or is a Japanese light novel series written by Takahiro Yamato and illustrated by Hanamaru Nanto. After the death of the author on July 20, 2009, the story remains incomplete at eleven volumes...
Kyousogiga
Natsume Yuujinchou
Nurarihyon no Mago
Nurarihyon no Mago
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, known in Japan as is a manga series written and illustrated by Hiroshi Shiibashi. The series was first published in Shueisha as a oneshot in 2007. The manga has been continuously serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since March 2008 and has...
Omamori Himari
Omamori Himari
, often abbreviated as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Milan Matra. The manga began serialization in the May 2006 issue of Fujimi Shobo's manga magazine Monthly Dragon Age, and the first tankōbon was released by Kadokawa Shoten on February 7, 2007...
Otome Yōkai Zakuro
Otome Yōkai Zakuro
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Lily Hoshino. It began serialization in November 2006 in the monthly seinen manga magazine Comic Birz. The first tankōbon volume was released by Gentosha in January 2008; as of September 2010, five volumes have been released. An anime adaptation...
Tactics
Tactics (manga)
is a Japanese manga series collaborated between Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama. It was serialized in Comic Blade Masamune. Kinoshita supplied the character "Kantarou," and Higashiyama supplied the character "Haruka." The manga was first released in North America by ADV Manga in 2004...
Yōkai Ningen Bem
Yokai Ningen Bem
is a 26 episode Japanese anime television series which first aired on Fuji TV between October 7, 1968 and March 31, 1969, on its 19:30-20:00 timeslot....
GeGeGe No Kitaro

Some of these sources, including InuYasha
InuYasha
, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...

, feature the child of a yōkai and a human. This child is referred to as a or "" or "han'yō" (half-yōkai) in InuYasha. This may derive from folkloric tradition—some folklore also deals with the child of a yōkai and a human, which may have supernatural powers.

Tokusatsu

The Ancient Dogoo Girl
The Ancient Dogoo Girl
is a Japanese comedy tokusatsu series directed by Noboru Iguchi, director of The Machine Girl and RoboGeisha. The show airs on MBS every Wednesday night at 25:25 JST. The ending theme is Denki Groove's .In October 2010, Dogoo Girl premiered its sequel...

& Dogoon V
Daimajin Kanon
Daimajin Kanon
is a Japanese tokusatsu television drama produced by Kadokawa Pictures and broadcast on TV Tokyo. The series premiered on April 2, 2010. The series retells the story of the original Daimajin film in the modern Japanese setting. Planned to run for 26 episodes, the series was prefaced by a manga by...
Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
was TOEI Company Limited's eighteenth production of the Super Sentai television series. The name given to this series by Toei for international distribution is Ninja Rangers....
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
is the title of Toei Company's thirty-third entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series of Japanese tokusatsu television series. It premiered on February 15, 2009, the week following the finale of Engine Sentai Go-onger, and ended on February 7, 2010...

Video games

Darkstalkers
Harukanaru Toki no Naka De
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de
is an otome adventure game developed by Ruby Party and published by Koei. It is a part of Ruby Party's Neoromance label.Because of Harukanaru Toki no Naka des success, the game has give rise to a franchise including several sequels, numerous drama and music CDs, a manga series, two OAVs, a movie,...
Kamen Rider Hibiki
Kamen Rider Hibiki
is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the fifteenth installment in the popular Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu programs. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei. Kamen Rider Hibiki first aired on January 30, 2005 and aired its final episode on January...
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Muramasa: The Demon Blade, known in Japan as is an action role playing game developed by Vanillaware and published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan, Rising Star Games in Europe, and Ignition Entertainment in North America for the Wii...
Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
Ninja Sentai Kakuranger
was TOEI Company Limited's eighteenth production of the Super Sentai television series. The name given to this series by Toei for international distribution is Ninja Rangers....
Ōkami
Okami
is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia...
Pocky & Rocky
Pocky & Rocky
Pocky & Rocky, known in Japan as , is a scrolling shooter video game with action elements licensed by Taito to Natsume, who developed and published the game for release in Japan in 1992 and the rest of the world in 1993...
Touhou
Touhou Project
The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a Japanese dōjin game series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part...
Onimusha

Foreign works

In the English-speaking world

Anglosphere

Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...

, knowledge of yōkai is slowly, but surely, developing a dedicated following.

Hawaiian folklorist Glen Grant
Glen Grant
Glen Grant was a Hawaiian historian, author and folklorist. He was primarily known for his Obake Files, a collection of articles and stories regarding native and imported folktales and mythology in Hawaii...

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 have been modified greatly in their retelling from their original forms in Japanese folklore.
The first major work on yokai in English is The Great Yokai Encyclopedia by Richard Freeman from CFZ Press
In the Dungeons and Dragons Oriental Adventures
Oriental Adventures
Oriental Adventures is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...

rulebook, one of the playable races is the hengeyokai, shapeshifters that can assume a human form, an animal form, and a hybrid bipedal animalistic form.
Yōkai have also been featured in the animated film, Hellboy: Sword of Storms. In the movie, several yōkai were featured, including the kappa
Kappa
Kappa is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, used to represent the voiceless velar stop, or "k", sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 20. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Kaph...

, rokurokubi
Rokurokubi
are yōkai found in Japanese folklore. They look like normal human beings by day, but at night they gain the ability to stretch their necks to great lengths. They can also change their faces to those of terrifying oni to better scare mortals....

, and various other creatures.

Location

In more modern works, and are used synonymously as the supernatural world where yōkai live. Works which have included one or the other include the manga series Tokimeki Tonight
Tokimeki Tonight
is a manga series by Koi Ikeno, which ran in the Japanese manga magazine, Ribon, from July 1982 to October 1994. A TV anime series was adapted from the manga and was broadcasted on NTV from October 7, 1982 to September 22, 1983.-Plot:Ranze Eto lives in an isolated castle in Japan with her werewolf...

and the young adult fiction series .

Synonyms to yōkai

Instead of yōkai, sometimes the word mononoke (written 物の怪) is used. It carries the meanings of "monster", "ghost" or "spirit", and the literal meaning is "the spirit of a thing" or "strange thing". This word is used to blame any unexplainable event on, and both inanimate objects and spirits of humans and other creatures can be called mononoke. Several anime