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Kori no Tatakai – Kitsune/Tanuki Battles
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, The Fox and the Badger in Japanese Folklore, Japanese Wikipedia, and OnMarkProductions. Kitsune (foxes) and tanuki share much in common. They are...
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What Does Ayakashi Mean in English?
Translated and sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, Kaii Yokai Densho Database Japanese Performing Arts Resource Center, and Other Sources A sea serpent so massive it takes three...
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Tanuki no Kintama – Tanuki’s Giant Balls
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, Japan Times, OnMark Productions, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database Who’s got big balls? Tanuki have big balls! Anyone who has...
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Betobeto-San – The Footsteps Yokai
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database When you are walking down a lonely mountain road at night, and you hear footsteps behind you,...
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Kejoro – The Hair Hooker
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database. From the sashay of those hips and the long, cascading raven-black hair, you know that you have...
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Tajima no Sorei – The Poltergeist of Tajima
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Taihei Hyakumonogatari, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources This is a tale of the Edo period, from Tajima province (modern day Hyogo...
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Garei – The Picture Ghost
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ochiguri Monogatari, and Other Sources Long ago, there was a dilapidated folding screen with the portrait of a woman holding her child. The screen was the...
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6 Japanese Yokai From Showa
In Showa period Japan belief in yokai was waning but could still be found, especially in the countryside and rural provinces. Mizuki Shigeru—Japan’s most honored and beloved author of yokai manga and...
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What’s the Difference Between Yurei and Yokai?
What is a yokai? What is a mononoke? What is a bakemono? Are yurei also yokai? These seemingly basic questions have no precise answers. Almost everyone has their own ideas, and they seldom agree with...
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Oseichu – The Mimicking Roundworm
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database It starts with a high fever and some stomach pains, and ends with a giant mouth poking out of...
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Shio no Choji – Salty Choji
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ehon Hyakumonogatari, and Japanese Wikipedia In Kaga province (modern day Ishikawa prefecture), there lived a wealthy man known as “Salty Choji”...
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Suppon no Yurei – The Turtle Ghost
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia The big cities in the Edo period were full of shops that specialized in the soft shell turtle dishes called suppon. If the...
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Suppon on Onryo – The Vengeful Ghosts of the Turtles
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia You can still see turtle restaurants in Japan today offering a full-course suppon meal, including a glass of blood served...
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Nebutori – The Sleeping Fatty
Translated and adapted from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ehon Hyakumonogatari, and Japanese Wikipedia A tale as old as time; in a drunken night of revelry, you climb in bed with a beautiful girl but wake...
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When Food Attacks – 6 Food Monsters From Japan
Japan’s native Yokai monsters can be almost anything—haunted trees, magical cats, transformed rats, or vengeful ghosts of slaughtered warriors. Or they can be food. Maybe animals who are sick of being...
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Oshiroi Baba – The Face Powder Hag
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Konjyaku Hyakki Shui, and Japanese Wikipedia Weather-beaten, sake-bearing snow lady or servant to the Goddess of Cosmetics? It all depends on who...
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Tsurara Onna – The Icicle Woman
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Is Japan’s Icicle Woman naughty or nice? Loving or lethal? If the stories are to...
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Yukinba/Yukifuriba – The Snow Hags
Translated and Sourced from Bakemono Emaki, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Hopping on one foot and eternally hunting for children to eat, the Yukinba is one of Japan’s most horrible snow...
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Yuki Warashi / Yukinbo – The Snow Babies
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Snow and ice have a certain magic to them. You can craft them into whatever shape you want, from snow men to...
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Yuki Onba and Yukinko – The Snow Mother and the Snow Child
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Miyagi-ken no Kowai Hanashi, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Walking along a forest path at night in the dead of winter, you come upon a...
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