Yōkai

Yōkai (Japanese妖怪) are figures of Japanese folk belief, most comparable monsters. They are also called Mononoke (物の怪) and are a subset of the Obake (お化け) - often the terms are also used interchangeably. The shapes range from the evil oni ( " demon " ) to the envious Kitsune ( " Fox" ) and the Yuki Onna ( " snow woman "). Some possess part animal and part human features, eg Kappa and Tengu. Yōkai possess supernatural powers, so that encounters are dangerous with them. Yōkai are often driven by obscure motives and plans. Some stories tell of Yōkai that have bred with humans to produce half - Yōkai ( Han'yō ). Many of these stories start out as love stories, but to no good end because of the many obstacles that hinder the relationship between man and Yōkai.

Some Yōkai avoid contact with humans and live far away from human habitation in uninhabited, secluded areas. Others live in human settlements, because they are attracted by the people or the heat of human homes by fire. With the Yōkai one combines traditionally the fire, the Northeast and the summer season, in which the spirits of the earthly world the next. Yōkai and Obake are often depicted in equally amusing how terrible forms. Weapon most Yōkai are not vulnerable, but Shinto exorcists (Japanese退 治 屋taijiya ) or Buddhist monks have the necessary powers to fight them.

Japanese folklorists and historians see Yōkai as phenomena that appeared their observers supernatural or inexplicable. Inspired by Japanese mythology or own ideas created in the Edo period, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien a variety of Yōkai. Many suspect today in some way created Yōkai (eg Kameosa and Amikiri ) falsely a mythological origin.

Species

There is a wide variety of Yōkai in Japanese mythology. General Yōkai is a broad term used to describe virtually all monsters and supernatural beings, including those from western mythologies. So the German Schrat is so often taken in Japanese myths that some believe he sprang from this.

Animal Yōkai

In Japan, it is believed by some animals that possess these magical powers. Most are Hengeyōkai (変 化 妖怪, shape-shifters ), the people, mostly women, and mimic human traits similar to show the animals from Central European fairy tales and fables. They are considered " leaders " of the animal kingdom and are in their natural form most indistinguishable from normal animals of their species. However, they should be able to transform both " ruling figures " of their animal forms and humans.

Better known representatives are:

• Tanuki ( raccoon dog狸)
• Kitsune ( fox狐)
• Mujina (貉badger )
• Tsuchigumo (土 蜘蛛earth or giant spiders )
• Jorōgumo (络 新妇or女郎 蜘蛛spider)
• Bakeneko and Nekomata (化け 猫猫 股and (Monster ) Cats )
• Wild boar
• Snakes
• Wolves

" Ruling figures " are especially silver foxes ( kitsune ) with nine tails, or man-sized raccoon dogs with huge testicles ( Tanuki ).

Foxes are associated with the deity Inari. During the Kitsune liked transforms into the form of a beautiful woman and you shrewdness and cunning nachsagt him as in Europe, the Tanuki is a rather pleasant fellow. No Japanese pub is complete without a statue of a tanuki with a thick Sakekrug or a promissory note in the paw.

Oni

One of the most well-known representative of the Japanese mythology, the Oni, a living in the mountains kind of ogre. They have usually a red, blue, brown or black skin, two horns on his head, a wide mouth with fangs and a loincloth of tiger skin. Oni also often have an iron club or a giant sword is. Mostly Oni are represented malignant, but occasionally also as the embodiment of an ambivalent natural force. How many Obake they are connected to the northeast.

Tsukumogami

Tsukumogami (付 丧 神) are a class of ordinary household objects that were alive to their hundredth "birthday". This virtually unlimited category includes both Bakezōri (straw sandals), Karakasa (old Bankasa Umbrellas ), Kameosa (old Sake vessels) as well Morinji no kama ( kettle ).

Human transformations

Many Yōkai were originally people who experienced extreme emotions a supernatural transformation into something terrible or grotesque. Examples are:

• Futakuchi - onna (二 口 女, dt " two mature woman " ): A woman who grows an extra mouth from the back of the head which is fed by their functioning as tentacle hair strands. This transformation was caused by the fear of the woman to her figure.
• Rokurokubi: people who can extend their necks at night
• Ohaguro Bettari: figures, usually women, reveal the turning over a face with only a blackened mouth
• Dorotabou: the resurrected corpse of a farmer, who haunts his oppressed country
• Yuki Onna: A snow woman, the man freezes
• Yamauba: A mountain witch who eats wayward

Other

There are countless Yōkai that are too bizarre, that one could categorize them. These are perversions or transformations of normal living beings or completely new types of goblin -like creatures. Examples are:

• Abura Sumashi: goes an old potato -headed leprechaun with a smug face, the oil
• Amikiri: A creature that only exists to cut mosquito nets
• Ushioni: A cow - demon who is sometimes depicted with the body of a giant spider
• Baku: A chimeric creature that feeds on pests and nightmares
• Kappa: A frog -like creature that lives in ponds and these protected
• Tengu: A goblin with wings and a long nose

Use in Literature and Film

Different types of Yōkai are found in mythology, inspired by literature, especially manga, and Japanese horror films ( J- Horror). The man whom one associates in Japan most of the whereabouts of Yōkai in the popular imagination, is Shigeru Mizuki, creator of series such as Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro over a one-eyed Yōkai superhero, and no Sampei Kappa. Other well-known manga and anime in which Yōkai play important roles, are Urusei Yatsura, in which the main character is a female Oni, and Inu Yasha, which is about a Hanyo and in medieval Japan, and Pom Poko, a film about Tanuki in today's world who are threatened by civilization and in which also occur Kitsune; Princess Mononoke, in which many animal Yōkai play a role, and Spirited Away country where the main character works in a bathhouse full of gods and Yōkai. A more recent example is the manga and anime series Nura - Lord of the Yokai by Hiroshi Shiibashi.

Films in which Yōkai occur are Yokai daisenso, a film series of 1960er/70er, and a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams from 2005 in which a procession of Kitsune and a person who resembles a traditional Oni happen.

But even in western novels and movies come before Yōkai, eg in Tom Robbins ' novel Villa Incognita, in which a Tanuki, takes the lead role, but also Harry Potter by JK Rowling, the Kappa and other creatures play minor roles. Also in the youth series Diary of a Vampire by Lisa J. Smith Kitsune come in the form of a couple's twin. Lafcadio Hearn's collection of ghost stories, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things contains many stories of yurei and Yōkai. The Hawaiian folklorist Glen Grant was known for his Obake Files, a series of reports of supernatural incidents in Hawaii. The majority of these incidents and reports was of Japanese origin that is. Due to frequent retelling of this remote The Mexican- American author Alfred Avila added the story La Japonesa using a Nekomusume ( cat girl ) in his collection of Mexican Ghost Tales of the Southwest. In the Kingdom of the Kitsune by Nina Blazon both Kitsune and Tanuki, Kappa and Tengu occur.