Yōkai

The word joins 妖, "bewitching," and 怪, "mysterious." Yōkai are not quite gods and not quite ghosts. The kappa is a river imp with a dish of water on top of its head. If the water spills, it loses its strength. So the best way to beat one is to bow, because a polite kappa always bows back. The kitsune, or fox, can take the shape of a beautiful woman. At Inari shrines, though, foxes are the god's messengers, not tricksters. The tanuki, a raccoon dog, is a cheerful shape-shifter who loves sake. Oni are horned ogres. On Setsubun, families throw beans to drive them out of the house. Old umbrellas, lanterns and sandals can come alive too. These are the tsukumogami, objects that gain a spirit after a hundred years of use.

In the Edo period, people loved ghost stories. In the 1770s and 1780s, the artist Toriyama Sekien drew hundreds of yōkai in illustrated catalogues. His books fixed how many of them still look. In the 20th century, the cartoonist Mizuki Shigeru brought them back with the manga GeGeGe no Kitarō. His hometown, Sakaiminato, now has a street lined with bronze yōkai statues. Modern hits such as Yo-kai Watch and some Pokémon draw on the same old creatures. For many Japanese children, yōkai are less frightening than familiar.