Japanese yokai, cryptids, urban legends, UFOs, mythical beasts and ancient mysteries, translated into English.
Entries: 431
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.
Insect-like aliens said to have a triangular, mantis-like head with large eyes and a long, thin body. They began to appear in alien abduction accounts around the 1990s, often described as beings that supervise the Greys.
An abbreviation of "Non-Human Intelligence." The term was defined in a 2023 U.S. congressional bill on disclosing UFO (UAP) records and spread rapidly after testimony at a congressional hearing. It refers broadly to any intelligence of unknown nature, not only aliens.
A book said to have been given to Adam, the first man, by the angel Raziel, containing all the secrets of the universe. Legend says it later passed to Noah and King Solomon. In reality it is a work of Jewish mysticism compiled in the Middle Ages, first printed in 1701 and treasured as a protective charm.
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.
A type of alien said to be tall, blond and blue-eyed, resembling the people of Northern Europe. Spread by 1950s "contactees" who claimed to have met aliens, they were portrayed as peace-preaching "space brothers," in sharp contrast to the small Greys.
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.
"Photos with fairies" taken by two girls in the English village of Cottingley in 1917. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, presented them as genuine, sparking great controversy, but in 1983 the two confessed they had used cut-out drawings.
Small mummies presented as "non-human bodies" at a UFO hearing of the Mexican Congress in September 2023. They were claimed to have been found near Nazca, Peru, but scientists pointed out one after another that they appear to be fakes assembled from human and animal bones.
