Yōkai are supernatural beings like kappas, demons, and even haunted household objects that have appeared in Japanese art and folklore for centuries.
It’s difficult to define yōkai in simple terms. Broadly, yōkai are creatures from Japanese folklore. They are widely varied in both appearance and nature, ranging from household objects come to life to demonic, ogre-like creatures. But unlike many creatures of Western folklore — say, a banshee or a wendigo — yōkai often lack specificity in their depictions.
Folklorist Michael Dylan Foster describes a common characteristic of yōkai being their “liminality” or “in-betweenness.” He calls them “creatures of the borderlands, living on the edge of town, or in the mountains between villages, or in the eddies of a river running between two rice fields.”
However, they also exist somewhere between myth and reality in a manner that is far different from similar creatures around the world. Yōkai are local folk tales that have also been popularized in mass media, constantly evolving and changing across places and generations.
Scholars have tried to categorize yōkai with relative success, but unlike the myths of ancient Greece or the Celts, they can’t be so easily divided into groups. Yes, they are Japanese monsters and demons, but they are also something more, something less clearly defined. They are living stories that can only truly be understood by experiencing their tales.
The nurarihyon is also infamous for its mischievous habit of sneaking into human homes while the residents are away or distracted, making itself at home by drinking tea, and acting as if it owns the place. When the homeowners return, they find the nurarihyon behaving like the master of the house, often confusing and unsettling them.Brigham Young University/Wikimedia Commons
The Chochin Oiwa yōkai appears as a paper lantern with a disfigured face that glows eerily, and she is often associated with haunting those who wronged her or wandering the streets at night to instill fear.Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oiwa was a beautiful woman married to a rōnin named Iemon, who, driven by ambition and greed, conspired to poison her to marry another woman. The poison disfigured Oiwa before ultimately killing her.
After her death, Oiwa's vengeful spirit returned to torment her husband and his co-conspirators. Her ghost is often depicted with a hauntingly mutilated face, a symbol of her suffering.
This version of Oiwa's story is similar to the tale of the yōkai, with the biggest difference being her posthumous appearance. The ghost of Oiwa is much more human-like than the yōkai, which resembles a lantern.Public Domain
However, they are also bound by a sense of honor and politeness and can be befriended or defeated through cleverness, such as tricking them into bowing to make the water spill from their heads, which renders them powerless.Public Domain
Nekomata are believed to hold grudges and have a desire for vengeance.Public Domain
Shirime looks like a typical human except for two startling features: it has no face, and instead of having an anus on its rear, it has a large, shining eye. According to legend, shirime enjoys surprising people by lifting its kimono to reveal the eye on its buttocks, which emits a bright, unsettling light.Public Domain
He was an emperor of Japan during the 12th century, but after being deposed and exiled following a failed attempt to reclaim the throne during the Hōgen Rebellion, his life took a tragic turn.
In folklore, Sutoku Tennō is said to have transformed into an onryō, a vengeful spirit, due to the bitterness and resentment from his downfall. This malevolent spirit was believed to cause natural disasters, political unrest, and various misfortunes as a form of revenge against those who wronged him. Public Domain
These ghosts are often depicted as vengeful spirits that haunt the places where they met their tragic end, particularly the sea, where many Taira warriors — including the young Emperor Antoku — perished in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Legends tell of these spirits causing storms, shipwrecks, and other misfortunes to those who disturb their resting places. Public Domain
Tanuki are also known for their cunning and trickery, and they use their abilities to deceive humans for fun or personal gain. They are associated with prosperity and good fortune. They are often shown with a sake bottle, symbolizing their carefree and indulgent nature.ART Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
However, Bakkan Nyudo is known for its malevolent intentions and trickery. It often preys on travelers, leading them astray in remote areas or forest paths, only to reveal its true, sinister form when its victims are most vulnerable. Sometimes, it can stretch its neck to terrifying lengths.Public Domain
Kitsune sometimes have multiple tails and gain more as they age, with the most powerful having as many as nine tails. They are associated with elemental powers, particularly fire, and can live for centuries, growing wiser and more powerful over time.Chronicle of World History / Alamy Stock Photo
Despite their menacing appearance, Otoroshi are not inherently malevolent and primarily act as guardian spirits, ensuring that revered places remain undisturbed by humans.CPA Media Pte Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
However, they are also said to bring good luck to those who can tolerate their pranks.Public Domain
Ushi-oni are notorious for attacking and devouring humans. Various regional stories portray them differently, but they are generally seen as symbols of chaos and danger, embodying the wild and untamed aspects of nature. Brigham Young University/Wikimedia Commons
These yōkai are a type of tsukumogami, or haunted household objects.
Kasa-obake are usually not malevolent; they are more mischievous than harmful and are known for startling people and playing pranks. Public Domain
What Are Yōkai In Japanese Folklore?
Michael Dylan Foster's The Book of Yōkai is the most comprehensive Western source on yōkai produced thus far. In it, he acknowledges the largest problem in trying to write about yōkai: "Unlike historical figures, political events, or economic changes, yōkai rarely make it into the authoritative public record. They slip through the cracks of official history. They don't belong to anybody."
In a sense, as Foster writes, they are a sort of "communal intellectual property." Across Japan, people tell stories of yōkai and have for generations. The general outlines of each Japanese monster remain relatively the same — kappas, for example, will always inhabit the water — but behaviors and symbolism can change from story to story, region to region, and generation to generation. The best modern example of this is the story of Kuchisake onna, the slit-mouthed woman.
Public DomainHyakki Yakō, or the "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons," is a common story in Japanese folklore describing a procession of yōkai that march across the country. Anyone who crosses their path is said to perish unless they carry an exorcism scroll.
Kuchisake onna is, in simplest terms, a modern urban legend, not all too different from the story of Bloody Mary. But whereas in the West, we might view Bloody Mary and leprechauns as two distinct types of stories — urban legends versus folklore — in Japan, urban legends and folklore alike could fall under the larger umbrella of yōkai.
There is a fair bit of nuance and vagueness in the definition of yōkai, but that's almost by design. In general, it would be best to think of them as something between a creature and a spirit, varying in appearance and personality depending on the story, with loose guidelines for how they should appear.
The Earliest Mentions Of Yōkai In Japanese History
Like most orally passed down stories, it's hard to create a perfect timeline of when yōkai originated and how they spread. That said, there are a few notable early works that make mention of yōkai in writing, including chronicles of Japanese myths, the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, as well as some regional gazetteers known as fudoki, which largely recounted local tales.
Then, during the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi periods, even more written accounts of yōkai began to appear, particularly in a literary genre known as setsuwa, generally categorized as short prose narratives gathered and then organized into collections. Many of these legends came from the oral tradition, and many were used to teach morals or promote Buddhist principles. There were other collections, however, that were seemingly put together simply for entertainment, often involving humorous stories, satire, and the occasional gory description.
These collections are pivotal to the modern study of yōkai, as they show how these stories evolved over time and how they were influenced by the attitudes of the people who compiled them.
Then, around the 14th century, another new genre of story emerged. Known as otogi-zōshi or "companion books," they were often short, entertaining narratives that, notably, featured images. Even today, hundreds of these books exist, with the illustrations painting a clearer image than ever before of what yōkai looked like. One of the most famous otogi-zōshi is the 14th-century Tsuchigumo Sōshi, a picture scroll that tells the tale of a hero conquering a fearsome creature known as an "earth spider," or tsuchigumo.
Brigham Young University/Wikimedia CommonsThe tsuchigumo, or "earth spider," is one of the most famous yōkai in Edo period works.
"In contrast to its appearance centuries earlier in the Fudoki from Hizen Province, the tsuchigumo in this scroll is a full-fledged yōkai, a gigantic spider-demon surrounded by its progeny of smaller spiderlike monsters, all fully illustrated in color," Foster writes. "Of course, it is always difficult to access the past, particularly intimate qualities of belief, through textual sources. But for exploring the development of yōkai and human interactions with yōkai, these texts are invaluable, and we know much of what follows because of setsuwa and otogi-zōshi."
So, how did this traditional yōkai transform into modern depictions of Japanese monsters?
Japanese Monsters In The Modern Era And Popular Culture
In the years leading up to World War II, Japan started to see a slight resurgence in the popularity of yōkai in popular media, but the state of yōkai today really started in the postwar boom, particularly in the realm of animation. As Japan worked to rebuild from the fallout of World War II, the country entered a period of rapid economic expansion and industrial growth, and the Japanese monsters took on a new, prominent role.
As Foster puts it, yōkai "became infused with nostalgia as icons from a more innocent, prewar Japan that had already disappeared." Foster credits manga and anime artist Shigeru Mizuki as the individual most responsible for making yōkai relevant during this period, as a "creative illustrator and storyteller who skillfully mixes history and folklore with invention and imagination to produce compelling narratives and memorable characters."
Mizuki made several beloved, popular television shows and comics featuring yōkai, with his first breakout success being the 1965 magazine publication of Terebi-kun, or "Television Boy," a story about a boy who enters televisions and lives in the world beyond the screen. This allowed Mizuki to create the popular anime series Hakaba Kitarō, or Kitarō of the Graveyard, a black-and-white anime about a boy named Kitarō and his wide variety of yōkai friends.
Toei Animation/Fuji TVThe final title for the series Hakaba Kitarō was Gegege no Kitarō, a title derived from Shigeru Mizuki's name, as the TV production studio worried that having "graveyard" in the title would be off-putting for audiences.
More recently, yōkai have continued to appear in various comics, television shows, video games, and novels. The Yōkai Watch series of video games, for example, loosely resembles another popular series, Pokémon, in its gameplay, with players collecting various yōkai and battling with them. In 2021, author Cassandra Khaw released the short horror novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth, which likewise includes yōkai in a prominent manner. Japanese monsters are also a major element of the 2022 video game Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Clearly, the cultural relevance of yōkai has only continued to grow over the years, making yōkai some of the most enduring folk tales in the world.
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