Clik here to view.
Betobeto-San – The Footsteps Yokai
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database When you are walking down a lonely mountain road at night, and you hear footsteps behind you,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tenjoname – The Ceiling Licker
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database. Some yokai are scary, some are funny, and some are just … weird. The tenjoname—that bizarre,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goze no Yurei – The Yurei of the Blind Female Musician
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Other Sources This story takes place during the Kyoho era (1716-1736). A samurai named Hotsumi Kanji,a minor prefect in Kitakuni province, was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Manekute no Yurei – The Inviting Ghost Hand
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Other Sources Late at night, when you have to get up to go to the bathroom, a mysterious hand beckons you from a wall. That’s strange enough,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Famous Japanese Ghost Stories
Japan is one of the most haunted places on Earth. In Japanese folk belief, Japan as an island is infused with supernatural powers–The very soil of the land is charged with potential, magical energy....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tajima no Sorei – The Poltergeist of Tajima
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Taihei Hyakumonogatari, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources This is a tale of the Edo period, from Tajima province (modern day Hyogo...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Konnyaku no Yurei – The Konnyaku Ghost of Tenri
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Legends of Tenri, and Other Sources This peculiar story comes from Tenri city, in Nara prefecture. In the span separating Kabata ward from Inaba...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Garei – The Picture Ghost
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ochiguri Monogatari, and Other Sources Long ago, there was a dilapidated folding screen with the portrait of a woman holding her child. The screen was the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Katabira no Tsuji – The Crossroad of Corpses
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, A Diplomat in Japan, Part II: The Diaries of Ernest Satow, 1870-1883, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources At the beginning of the Heian era,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Countdown to Mizuki Shigeru’s Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan
The long wait is almost over! Mizuki Shigeru’s Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan arrives in stores November 11th!!! I hope everyone is as excited as I am. I guarantee this is one of the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
6 Japanese Yokai From Showa
In Showa period Japan belief in yokai was waning but could still be found, especially in the countryside and rural provinces. Mizuki Shigeru—Japan’s most honored and beloved author of yokai manga and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s the Difference Between Yurei and Yokai?
What is a yokai? What is a mononoke? What is a bakemono? Are yurei also yokai? These seemingly basic questions have no precise answers. Almost everyone has their own ideas, and they seldom agree with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oseichu – The Mimicking Roundworm
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, and Kaii Yokai Densho Database It starts with a high fever and some stomach pains, and ends with a giant mouth poking out of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shio no Choji – Salty Choji
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ehon Hyakumonogatari, and Japanese Wikipedia In Kaga province (modern day Ishikawa prefecture), there lived a wealthy man known as “Salty Choji”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suppon no Yurei – The Turtle Ghost
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia The big cities in the Edo period were full of shops that specialized in the soft shell turtle dishes called suppon. If the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suppon on Onryo – The Vengeful Ghosts of the Turtles
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia You can still see turtle restaurants in Japan today offering a full-course suppon meal, including a glass of blood served...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nebutori – The Sleeping Fatty
Translated and adapted from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ehon Hyakumonogatari, and Japanese Wikipedia A tale as old as time; in a drunken night of revelry, you climb in bed with a beautiful girl but wake...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Food Attacks – 6 Food Monsters From Japan
Japan’s native Yokai monsters can be almost anything—haunted trees, magical cats, transformed rats, or vengeful ghosts of slaughtered warriors. Or they can be food. Maybe animals who are sick of being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oshiroi Baba – The Face Powder Hag
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Konjyaku Hyakki Shui, and Japanese Wikipedia Weather-beaten, sake-bearing snow lady or servant to the Goddess of Cosmetics? It all depends on who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tsurara Onna – The Icicle Woman
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Is Japan’s Icicle Woman naughty or nice? Loving or lethal? If the stories are to...
View Article