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Supernatural beings from Japanese folklore

"strange apparition"; wikt:妖怪; 妖怪 are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is composed of two kanji characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while it may be regarded as a loanword from the Chinese term yaoguai, the word yōkai has taken on multiple different meanings particular to a Japanese context. Yōkai are also referred to as (あやかし), (物の怪) or (魔物). Despite often being translated as such, yōkai are not demons in the Western sense of the word, and they can be viewed as kami. However, the two loose classes of spirits are generally thought of as highly different, although some academics and Shinto practitioners acknowledge similarities within the seeming dichotomy between the natures of them and most kami, which are generally thought to be relatively beneficent in comparison, and class the two as ultimately the same type of spirits of nature or a mythological realm. Their behavior can range from malevolent or mischievous to benevolent to humans. Yōkai often have animal like features (such as the [[Kappa (folklore), depicted as appearing similar to a turtle, and the tengu, commonly depicted with wings), but may also appear humanoid in appearance, such as the kuchisake onna. Some yōkai resemble inanimate objects (such as the tsukumogami), while others have no discernible shape. Yōkai are typically described as having spiritual or supernatural abilities, with shapeshifting being the most common trait associated with them. Yōkai that shapeshift are known as (化け物) or (お化け). Japanese folklorists and historians explain yōkai as personifications of "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants". In the Edo period, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien, invented new yōkai by taking inspiration from folk tales or purely from their own imagination. Today, several such yōkai (such as the amikiri) are mistakenly thought to originate in more traditional folklore.

772 CE: in the Shoku Nihongi, there is the statement "Shinto purification is performed because yōkai appear very often in the imperial court", using the word yōkai to not refer to any one phenomenon in particular, but to strange phenomena in general. Middle of the Heian period (794–1185/1192): In The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, there is the statement "there are tenacious mononoke", as well as a statement by Murasaki Shikibu that "the mononoke have become quite dreadful", which are the first appearances of the word mononoke. 1370: In the Taiheiki, in the fifth volume, there is the statement, "Sagami no Nyudo was not at all frightened by yōkai." The ancient times were a period abundant in literature and folktales mentioning and explaining yōkai. Literature such as the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and various Fudoki expositioned on legends from the ancient past, and mentions of oni, [[Yamata no Orochi, among other kinds of mysterious phenomena can already be seen in them. In the Heian period, collections of stories about yōkai and other supernatural phenomena were published in multiple volumes, starting with publications such as the Nihon Ryōiki and the Konjaku Monogatarishū, and in these publications, mentions of phenomena such as Hyakki Yagyō can be seen. The yōkai that appear in this literature were passed on to later generations. Despite the literature mentioning and explaining these yōkai, they were never given any visual depictions. In Buddhist paintings such as the Hell Scroll (Nara National Museum), which came from the later Heian period, there are visual expressions of the idea of oni, but actual visual depictions would only come later in the Middle Ages, from the Kamakura period and beyond. Yamata no Orochi was originally a local god but turned into a yōkai who was slain by Susanoo. Yasaburo was originally a bandit whose vengeful spirit (onryō) turned into a poisonous snake upon death and plagued the water in a paddy, but eventually became deified as the "wisdom god of the well". [[Kappa (folklore) and inugami are sometimes treated as gods in one area and yōkai in other areas. From these examples, it can be seen that among Japanese gods, there are some beings that can go from god to yōkai and vice versa.

1677: Publication of the Shokoku Hyakumonogatari, a collection of tales of various monsters. 1706: Publication of the Otogi Hyakumonogatari. In volumes such as Miyazu no Ayakashi (volume 1) and Unpin no Yōkai (volume 4), collections of tales that seem to come from China were adapted into a Japanese setting. 1712: Publication of the Wakan Sansai Zue by Terajima Ryōan, a collection of tales based on the Chinese Sancai Tuhui. 1716: In the specialized dictionary (世説故事苑), there is an entry on yōkai, which stated, "Among the commoners in my society, there are many kinds of kaiji (mysterious phenomena), often mispronounced by commoners as 'kechi.' Types include the cry of weasels, the howling of foxes, the bustling of mice, the rising of the chicken, the cry of the birds, the pooping of the birds on clothing, and sounds similar to voices that come from cauldrons and bottles. These types of things appear in the Shōseiroku, methods of exorcising them can be seen, so it should serve as a basis." 1788: Publication of the Bakemono chakutocho by Masayoshi Kitao. This was a kibyoshi diagram book of yōkai, but it was prefaced with the statement "it can be said that the so called yōkai in our society is a representation of our feelings that arise from fear", and already in this era, while yōkai were being researched, it indicated that there were people who questioned whether yōkai really existed or not. It was in this era that the technology of the printing press and publication was first started to be widely used, that a publishing culture developed, and was frequently a subject of kibyoshi and other publications. As a result, kashi hon shops that handled such books spread and became widely used, making the general public's impression of each yōkai fixed, spreading throughout Japan. For example, before the Edo period, there were plenty of interpretations about what the yōkai were that were classified as kappa, but because of books and publishing, the notion of kappa became anchored to what is now the modern notion of kappa.

Since yōkai have been introduced in various kinds of media, they have become well known among the old, the young, men and women. The kamishibai from before the war, and the manga industry, as well as the kashi hon shops that continued to exist until around the 1970s, as well as television contributed to the public knowledge and familiarity with yōkai. Yōkai play a role in attracting tourism revitalizing local mecca regions such as Tōno in Iwate Prefecture (where stories in Kunio Yanagita's Tono Monogatari were collected) or Tottori Prefecture (Shigeru Mizuki's birthplace). In this way, yōkai are spoken about in legends in various forms, but traditional oral storytelling by the elders and the older people is rare, and regionally unique situations and background in oral storytelling are not easily conveyed. For example, the classical yōkai represented by tsukumogami can only be felt as something realistic by living close to nature, such as with tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs), foxes and weasels. Furthermore, in the suburbs, and other regions, even when living in a primary sector environment, there are tools that are no longer seen, such as the inkstone, the kama (a large cooking pot), or the tsurube (a bucket used for getting water from a well), and there exist yōkai that are reminiscent of old lifestyles such as the azukiarai and the dorotabō [ja]. As a result, even for those born in the first decade of the Shōwa period (1925–1935), except for some who were evacuated to the countryside, they would feel that those things that become yōkai are "not familiar" and "not very understandable". For example, in classical rakugo, even though people understand the words and what they refer to, they are not able to imagine it as something that could be realistic. Thus, the modernization of society has had a negative effect on the place of yōkai in classical Japanese culture. On the other hand, the yōkai introduced through mass media are not limited to only those that come from classical sources like folklore, and just as in the Edo period, new fictional yōkai continue to be invented, such as scary school stories and other urban legends like kuchisake onna and Hanako san, giving birth to new yōkai. From 1975 onwards, starting with the popularity of kuchisake onna, these urban legends began to be referred to in mass media as "modern yōkai". This terminology was also used in recent publications dealing with urban legends, and the researcher on yōkai, Bintarō Yamaguchi [ja], used this especially frequently. and Mizuki himself, through GeGeGe no Kitaro, created about 30 new yōkai. There has been much criticism that this mixing of classical yōkai with newly created yōkai is making light of tradition and legends.