STORIES
Yokai Stories
A new yokai story, almost every day.
Ippon-datara and "the Last Twentieth" — A Yokai for One Day a YearIppon-datara, a one-legged yokai, is said to appear on a mountain pass only on December 20. Through the custom of staying out of the mountains that day, a legend of a sealed spirit, and theories linking its single leg to old ironworking, a gentle look at a yokai with just one day a year.
Daidarabotchi, the Giant Who Made Mountains and LakesDaidarabotchi is said to have heaped up mountains and left lakes as footprints. From a shell-eating giant in an ancient regional record to place names said to come from its footsteps, a gentle look at how people once told the story of the landscape.
Why Is the Gashadokuro a "New" Yokai?The giant skeleton known as the gashadokuro barely appears in old folklore and is said to be a yokai born in the Showa era. A gentle look at how a famous ukiyo-e by Utagawa Kuniyoshi and postwar yokai encyclopedias came together to create this "newcomer.
Amabie Began with a Single News Sheet: The Prophetic Yokai from the Sea off HigoLong hair, a beak-like mouth, a scaly body and three legs. The story of Amabie comes from a single news sheet printed in the 1840s. A gentle look at the kawaraban, Amabie's cousin "Amabiko," and why the creature spread again in 2020.
The Great Tanuki War of Awa: Kincho, Rokuemon, and Tokushima's Battling Raccoon DogsLate in the Edo period, the story goes, the tanuki of Awa (today's Tokushima) split into two armies and went to war. Meet Kincho of Komatsushima, the hero of the tale, along with a few of Japan's other famous shapeshifting tanuki.
The Nabeshima Bakeneko Disturbance: A Saga Ghost-Cat Tale Spread by Theater and StorytellersThe Nabeshima Bakeneko Disturbance is Japan's best-known ghost-cat tale: a cat carrying its owner's sorrow slips into a castle in Saga. Spread through kabuki and kodan storytelling from the late Edo period, it is a story, not history. A gentle look at what makes it so gripping.
The Nine-Tailed Fox and the Killing Stone of Nasu: The Legend of Tamamo-no-MaeIn the hot-spring hills of Nasu, Tochigi, lies the Sessho-seki, a "killing stone" once feared for taking the life of anything that came near. A gentle walk through the legend of Tamamo-no-Mae, the nine-tailed fox who became that stone, the monk who split it, and what really made it deadly.
Chochin-obake and Oiwa: Hokusai's Lantern and the Yotsuya Ghost StoryA face appearing in a torn paper lantern: the eeriness of chochin-obake comes from a trusted light suddenly gaining a face. From Hokusai's print of Oiwa to a famous lantern trick in the kabuki play Yotsuya Kaidan, a gentle look at lanterns and ghost stories.
Karakasa-obake, the Yokai That Grew Up in PicturesKarakasa-obake, the hopping umbrella, is one of the best-known yokai in Japan, yet few local legends tell of meeting one. How the shape of a Japanese umbrella became its body, and how it grew popular in toy prints and card games.
The Nurikabe Has No Shape: The Invisible Wall That Blocks the Night RoadTold of along the coast of Onga District in Fukuoka, the nurikabe is an invisible wall that suddenly stops you on a night road. The old tales say almost nothing about how it looks. Here's how to make it vanish, and a look at yokai named for an experience rather than a shape.