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Nazo no Tokkuri – The Enigmatic Sake Bottle
Translated from Edo Tokyo Kaii Hyakumonogatari In July 28th, in the seventh year of Kaei (1854), a sake seller plied his trade between the Kamakura riverbanks and the lower valley. On that day, an old...
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Umibōzu – The Sea Monk
Translated and sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujara, Yokai Jiten, Japanese Wikipedia, and other sources If you find yourself out sailing strange tides in an unfamiliar sea, the umibozu is not the kind...
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Shōrōkaze – The Ghost Wind
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujara In Goto city in Nagasaki, on the morning of the 15th day of the Obon festival of the dead, it was said that an evil wind blew. Anyone who felt the caress of...
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Tōfu-kozō – The Tofu Boy
Translated and sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujara, Yokai Jiten, Japanese Wikipedia, and other sources On a dark and stormy night Edo night, if you should happen to turn around and see a giant baby...
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Yūrei-zu – A Portrait of a Yūrei, a Japanese Ghost
Translated from Mikzuki Shigeru’s Yokai Zukan The moon hangs in the sky like the blade of a sickle, giving off a dim glow. A ghostly air permeates the scene, and from a thicket of bamboo emerges the...
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Bakeneko – The Changing Cat
Sourced and translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Hyakumonogatari, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, Yokai Jiten, Nihon Kokugo Dai-ten, and Other Sources Late at night, a sublimely beautiful...
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What Does Yokai Mean in English?
You probably think you already know what yokai means. And, you are probably wrong. Or at least, you are only partially correct. There is more to yokai than you think. Thanks to movies like “The Great...
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Bakeneko Yujo – The Bakeneko Prostitutes of Edo
Sourced and Translated from Japanese Wikipedia and Other Sources After enjoying the delights of one of the famed courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure district, a young samurai settles into his futon...
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Takaonna – The Tall Woman
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia The takaonna (tall woman) is a yokai with an interesting hobby. If she is walking along, and sees a two-story brothel, she stretches the...
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Gotokoneko – The Trivet Cat
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara and Japanese Wikipedia If you wake up on a cold morning to see a fire mysteriously roaring in what should be a cold fireplace, don’t be afraid. It...
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The Tale of the Hashihime of Uji
Translated from the Heike Monogatari During the Imperial reign of the Emperor Saga, there lived a courtly lady consumed by jealousy. So powerfully was she in jealousy’s grip that she made a pilgrimage...
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Bakekujira and Japan’s Whale Cults
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources Legends of a Great White Whale usually bring to mind Moby Dick, but the white of...
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The Ghost of Oyuki
Maruyama Ōkyo opened his eyes from a fitful sleep and saw a dead woman. She was young. Beautiful. And pale. Unnaturally drained of color, her bloodless skin peeked from her loose, bone-white burial...
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Hidarugami – The Hunger Gods
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Showa: A History of Japan, Japanese Wikipedia, Kaii Yokai Densho Database, and Other Sources If you are walking through a mountain trail, and find...
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What Does Ayakashi Mean in English?
Translated and sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, Kaii Yokai Densho Database Japanese Performing Arts Resource Center, and Other Sources A sea serpent so massive it takes three...
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Shoraida – The Rice Paddy Ghosts
Translated and Sourced from the Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Japanese Wikipedia, An Explanation of the Tateyama Mandala and the Tateyama Faith, and Other Sources The great Hida mountain range of...
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Heike Ichizoku no Onryo – The Vengeful Ghosts of the Heike Clan
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, British Museum.org, Funa Benkei, The Warrior Ghosts of Noh, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources The year is 1185. Minamoto no Yoshitsune stands...
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Aizuwakamatsu no Yurei – The Yurei of Aizuwakamatsu
Translated from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara Long ago, in the town of Aizuwakamatsu (modern day Fukushima prefecture) lived a man named Iyo lived with his wife. One night the yurei of a woman appeared in...
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Yuigon Yurei – The Last Request Yurei
Translated and Sourced from Mizuki Shigeru’s Mujyara, Ehon Hyaku Monogatari, Japanese Wikipedia, and Other Sources It is said that people who die with some lingering issue—those who didn’t properly...
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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...
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