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Kasha – The Corpse-Eating Cat Demon
Sourced and translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Hyakumonogatari, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, Yokai Jiten, Nihon Kokugo Dai-ten, and Other Sources If you have been a bad person all...
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Bakeneko – The Changing Cat
Sourced and translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Hyakumonogatari, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, Yokai Jiten, Nihon Kokugo Dai-ten, and Other Sources Late at night, a sublimely beautiful...
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Kodama – The Tree Spirit
Sourced and translated from Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, Yokai Jiten, Nihon Kokugo Dai-ten, and Other Sources If a tree falls in the forest, and someone hears it, is that the...
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Shirime – Eyeball Butt
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujara In old times, this was a yokai found on the roads leading to Kyoto. The legend goes that late at night, a samurai walking down the street when a man in a kimono...
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Baku – The Dream Eater
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujara and Japanese Wikipedia When a child in Japan wakes shaking from a nightmare, she knows what to do. Hugging her face in her pillow, she whispers three times...
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What Does Yokai Mean in English?
You probably think you already know what yokai means. And, you are probably wrong. Or at least, you are only partially correct. There is more to yokai than you think. Thanks to movies like “The Great...
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Bakeneko Yujo – The Bakeneko Prostitutes of Edo
Sourced and Translated from Japanese Wikipedia and Other Sources After enjoying the delights of one of the famed courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure district, a young samurai settles into his futon...
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Takaonna – The Tall Woman
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia The takaonna (tall woman) is a yokai with an interesting hobby. If she is walking along, and sees a two-story brothel, she stretches the...
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Gotokoneko – The Trivet Cat
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia If you wake up on a cold morning to see a fire mysteriously roaring in what should be a cold fireplace, don’t be afraid. It...
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A Brief History of Yokai
When the god Izanagi returned from the Land of Yomi, he purified himself in a bath. As he dried his body, each falling drop of water soaked into the soil and imbued the land with supernatural...
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Tesso – The Iron Rat
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources In Japanese folklore, if you make a promise you had better keep it—even if you...
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The Tale of the Hashihime of Uji
Translated from the Heike Monogatari During the Imperial reign of the Emperor Saga, there lived a courtly lady consumed by jealousy. So powerfully was she in jealousy’s grip that she made a pilgrimage...
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Hashihime – The Bridge Princess
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Nothing quite embodies the saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” like...
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Bakekujira and Japan’s Whale Cults
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Legends of a Great White Whale usually bring to mind Moby Dick, but the white of...
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Yokai Chat at Obakeforums.com!
Once upon a time the Obakemono Project was the coolest place on the internet to chat with like-minded folks about yurei, yokai, and other Asian and world folklore monsters. Sadly, the owner lost...
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Onikuma – Demon Bear
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources What walks on its hind legs like a human, is covered in fur, and hauls off...
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Ijuu – The Strange Beast
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources If you are wandering through the forests of Japan and happen across a beast that...
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Nezumi Otoko – Rat Man
Translated and sourced from Kitaro’s Daihyaka, Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and various Gegege no Kitaro comics Half yokai. Half human. All scoundrel. Nezumi Otoko is the trickster...
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Sazae Oni – The Turban Shell Demon
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources The Sazae Oni may not look like much—just a giant shellfish with an odd set of...
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Tsukimono – The Possessing Thing
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, The Catalpa Bow, Myths and Legends of Japan, Occult Japan, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources There are eight million gods and monsters in...
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