▚ A GUIDE TO JAPANESE YOKAI ▞
PIXEL
YOKAI
Japanese yokai, one pixel at a time.
A night parade of spirits, rendered in retro 8-bit.
Rokurokubi
▚ A GUIDE TO JAPANESE YOKAI ▞
Japanese yokai, one pixel at a time.
A night parade of spirits, rendered in retro 8-bit.
Rokurokubi
A new yokai story, almost every day.
Namahage Are Not Demons — The Idea of the Visiting DeityWith horns and fearsome masks, the namahage of Oga in Akita look exactly like demons, yet households greet them with sake and food, not thrown beans. A gentle look at who they really are, through the idea of the "visiting deity.
Gataro, Medochi, Enko: The Many Names of the KappaThe kappa is Japan's best-known water yokai, but it goes by different names around the country: Gataro, Medochi, Enko, Hyosube. A gentle tour of its names, its love of cucumbers, and the Kappa-buchi pool in Tono.
Zashiki-warashi and The Legends of Tono — The Child Who Brings a House Good FortuneThe book that made the zashiki-warashi famous is Kunio Yanagita's The Legends of Tono, where the child spirit is called not a yokai but a god. A gentle look at the child who lives in old houses, as the book tells it.Click a yokai to read its legend on its Yokaipedia page.
Travel Japan on a pixel map and meet the yokai of each region.
Pixel Yokai introduces Japan's yokai — the spirits, monsters, and strange beings of folklore passed down for centuries — in a friendly, easy-to-follow way, so more people can get to know them.
The simple, warm texture of retro 8-bit graphics, and the eeriness of yokai stirring in the dark of night. We pack those two opposite charms into a handful of colors and a grid of tiny squares.
