Supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore, such as the tengu and the kappa, passed down in every region of Japan.
Entries: 94
A grand, empty mansion said to be found by people lost in the mountains; taking something from it is said to bring good fortune. Yanagita Kunio's The Legends of Tono includes the story of a woman who became wealthy thanks to a red bowl that floated down the river from it.
A one-eyed, one-legged mountain yokai. Told of in the Hatenashi Mountains on the border of Nara and Wakayama Prefectures and on Mount Obagamine, it was said to appear on December 20, the "Hate no Hatsuka," and people were warned not to enter the mountains that day. One theory links its name to the smiths of tatara ironmaking.
A yokai that comes at night to turn sleepers' pillows over or reverse the direction of their head and feet. In northeastern Japan it is often said to be the mischief of a zashiki-warashi. People once believed the soul left the body during sleep, and feared that if the pillow were moved, the soul could not return.
A yokai in which countless eyes appear in every square of the paper screens of a ruined house. Toriyama Sekien drew it and explained it as the intense focus a go player once directed at his board, spreading through the whole house. An optical illusion on moonlit screens has been suggested as its true nature.
A spider yokai that turns into a beautiful woman to lure men and drag them into waterfall basins and deep pools. Legends of it remain at Jōren Falls on the Izu Peninsula and at Kashikobuchi pool in Sendai. Toriyama Sekien drew it as a spider woman controlling fire-breathing baby spiders.
A ghost or yokai of a woman who died in childbirth, appearing with a baby in her arms. She asks passers-by to hold the baby, and those who endure its growing weight to the end are said to receive great strength. A tale of her appears in the Heian-period Konjaku Monogatari, and she is linked to the "child-raising ghost" legends found across Japan.
Mysterious lights that appear far out on the Yatsushiro Sea and Ariake Sea in Kyushu around the night of the first day of the eighth lunar month, multiplying into thousands of fires lined up in a row. They are recorded as far back as the Nihon Shoki. Today they are thought to be a kind of mirage in which the lights of fishing boats are bent by temperature differences in the air.
Ghosts of people who died at sea that approach boats and say, "Lend us a ladle," then use it to scoop seawater into the boat until it sinks. It is said you can escape by handing over a ladle with the bottom knocked out. They were believed to appear on stormy or foggy nights and around the Obon season.
A yokai in the form of a towering, shaven-headed monk who suddenly appears on night roads to frighten people. Told of throughout Japan, it is often said to be a tanuki, fox or otter in disguise. It is considered a relative of the mikoshi-nyūdō, which keeps growing taller.
A yokai in the form of a child wearing a large straw hat and carrying a block of tofu on a tray. It appeared in illustrated popular books (kusazōshi) in the late Edo period and became a favorite of the people of Edo. Doing no real harm, it was loved as a timid, clumsy "character yokai" of Edo.
A yokai that looks like an old man yet cries like a baby on mountain roads at night. If you feel sorry for it and pick it up, it clings to you and grows heavier and heavier, and some say it takes your life. It is told of in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture and became famous as one of Kitaro's allies in the manga GeGeGe no Kitaro.
A yokai that startles people passing through deserted woods or near shrines by sprinkling sand on them from nowhere. It is told of in Nara, Hyogo and Shiga Prefectures. No one has ever seen it, but it became famous as an old woman in the manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. Some say it is the work of tanuki.
A possessing fox spirit said to be small enough to fit inside a bamboo pipe. Izuna practitioners and mountain ascetics were believed to control it, making it possess people or using it for divination. It is told of mainly in the Chubu, Kanto and Tokai regions.
A sacred beast said to eat people's bad dreams. It is depicted with an elephant's trunk, a rhinoceros's eyes, an ox's tail and a tiger's legs. In China it was said to ward off evil; in Japan, the character for "baku" was written on pictures such as the treasure ship of the first dream of the year to ward off nightmares.
An auspicious sacred beast of Chinese legend said to appear when a wise ruler arises. With the body of a deer, the tail of an ox and the hooves of a horse, it is said to be so gentle it will not even step on insects. It also gave its name to the giraffe in Japanese.
A god said to attach itself to a house or person and make that house poor. It is described as a thin old man holding a torn fan. There are rituals for driving it away, yet stories also tell of people who worshipped it devotedly and gained good fortune.
A yokai told of in Nara Prefecture and elsewhere: when you walk alone on a night road, "beto beto" footsteps follow you from behind. It is said that if you step to the side of the road and say "Betobeto-san, please go ahead," the footsteps disappear.
A yokai with a smooth face that has no eyes, nose or mouth. It became famous worldwide through "Mujina" in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan. The story pattern of "startling you twice," in which you flee only to meet another faceless figure, is famous.
A child yokai with one large eye in the middle of its face. In the Kanto region and elsewhere it was said to visit houses on the "Koto-yoka" days of February 8 and December 8, and people drove it away by hanging many-eyed baskets from the eaves.
A pair of giants: "Tenaga," with very long arms, and "Ashinaga," with very long legs. Ashinaga is said to carry Tenaga on his back to catch fish in the sea, and on Mount Chokai and Mount Bandai legends tell of them as man-eating giants who were defeated.
