AltJapan

The Demons' Night Out

The Haykki Yagyo (百鬼夜行), literally "the night parade of a hundred demons," is one of the most famous tales in Japanese folklore. It first appeared in a Buddhist text in the 13th century, but its roots undoubtedly extend even further back. It is the story of a nightmarish evening during which legions of yokai, oni, and other fearsome creatures erupted from their usual hiding places to openly terrorize the world of the living. According to one version, they paraded down Kyoto's Ichijo-dori avenue in the late 1100s. Above, a "Biwa-bokuboku" (lute) and "Koto-furunushi" (floor-harp) take to the streets with a furry pal.

Now, for the first time in many years, the National Museum of Japanese History has successfully collected all of the surviving picture-scrolls depicting this night of terror into one gallery. They are hundreds of years old and represent cultural treasures. Gathered from temples, museums, and universities all over Japan, this is a rare opportunity to see all of the Hyakki Yagyo scrolls together in one place. 

The Hyakki Yagyo inspired countless generations of Japanese artists, including Toriyama Sekien, who penned an influential series of yokai guides in the 1770s; woodblock artists of the 1800s; and manga masters such as Mizuki Shigeru in the 20th century. The scrolls will be on public display from July 18th through August 30th, alongside a big LCD touchpanel allowing you to scroll through digital copies with your fingertips. Located in Chiba, it's a bit off the beaten path for Tokyo residents and visitors, but well worth the trip. We had to go all the way to Kyoto to see just one of these scrolls during the making of Yokai Attack. Trust me, you won't get another chance to see them all together like this anytime soon.

Kappa Ten Seven!

NOTE TIME CHANGE BELOW!

It's July, and you know what that means? It's time for the annual Kappa Ten (exhibition)! Held from July 9th through the 21st at the Artist Garden in Ikebukuro, it's a celebration of everyone's favorite cucumber-munchin', anal-attackin' yokai: the kappa! This time around we'll be seeing some new faces, like the talented Koji Harmon and the not-so-talented... ME! Stay tuned for a preview of the piece I've been secretly working on in collaboration with the mysterious "Mr. Marugame."

A special opening reception party is being held from 5pm to 6:30 pm on SATURDAY, JULY 11th. It's open to one and all, so mark your calendars and drop on by for plenty of kappa maki rolls, beer, and some killer yokai art. Copies of Yokai Attack will be on sale as well.  Here's a map -- see you there!

Fire Walk With Me

We didn't even realize it at the time, but Hiroko and I seem to have had a close encounter last Sunday. It happened at the annual fire-walking festival held at the base of Mt. Takao. The area is famed as home to practitioners of Shugendō: Buddhist monks that isolate themselves from society, deep in the mountains, to hone their mental and physical skills. Also known as yamabushi, these highly disciplined, and once upon a time, quite well armed martial artists were occasionally confused for the ferocious mountain-dwelling yokai known as Tengu in times of old. They are serious bad-asses.

Pixel Yokai!

It's almost Halloween. They may not celebrate it in Japan, but trust me, there's no shortage of things that go bump in the night here. They're called yokai. They're Japan's traditional creepy-crawlies, the sorts of  monsters that have haunted generations of Japanese kids' dreams... and nightmares. If you've been following this blog, you know that Hiroko and I just published a guidebook about them called Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide.

Even if you aren't Japanese, you're probably more familiar with the yokai than you think. They started life as rural folktales, but in the modern age they lurk in all sorts of unexpected places, from comics to anime to video games. So chances are you've been getting a healthy dose of Japanese mythology without even knowing it. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at a short list of yokai spotted in video games, compared to their folklore counterparts!

Drifting Classroom

A friend of ours helped build this yokai-infested haunted house as part of a folklore program for a local elementary school. Note the Tengu, Nurikabe (haunted wall), Karakasa (haunted umbrella), and Wanyudo (flaming wheel o' death). Will the kids be thrilled, chilled, or scarred for life? Only time will tell.

Nagai Yokai

Thanks to "Nekrodave" for digging up this early-Seventies pic of a very young Go Nagai holding up a super-limited-edition Mazinger Z prize statue (believed to be a one of the prototypes for the very first Jumbo Machinder toy.) Note the glowering Tengu mask on the wall above his head. Tengu are among the oldest of Japanese yokai, and masks of them are still common sights throughout Japan today.

There are two main "species" of Tengu: Karasu (raven) Tengu, and Hanadaka (longnose) Tengu. Raven are subservient to longnose in the Tengu hierarchy; they're like the enforcers, whereas the longnose are more like dons. Here's the longnose Tengu as seen in our new book, Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide:

Hanzaki: Salamander from HELL

Some four hundred years ago at a spot in the Asahi river called Ryuto-ga-fuchi ("Dragon's Head Abyss") lived a giant hanzaki that measured nearly 11 meters in length, with a body some 5.5 meters around. 

All in the village avoided Ryuto-ga-fuchi, for when disturbed the giant hanzaki would flail its tail wildly and swallow the offender, whether man or beast. One day, a young man by the name of Hikoshiro Mitsui decided to defeat the creature, diving into the abyss with a tanto blade gripped between his teeth. Before long, the surface of the river roiled with blood, followed shortly thereafter by the hanzaki. The creature's belly rent from chin to bowels as a victorious Mitsui carved his way out of its stomach. 

But his triumph was short-lived, for thereafter Mitsui's home was beset night after night by howls and pounding; before long, the entire family had died. Seeing what had been wrought, the villagers erected Hanzaki Daimyojin, a shrine to the enormous salamander-god, on the spot; and to this day, every year on the Eighth of August, a celebration is held to venerate and placate its powerful spirit.

- Local legend, Yubara Onsen, Okayama Prefecture

(Translated from the Hanzaki Center website)

Hands down best part of last weekend's Hanzaki Matsuri festival: a "haunted house" built and run by the village. Unlike, say, Disney's Haunted Mansion, super-low budgets necessitated the (really rather awesome) expedient of hiring local high school kids dressed like yokai to jump out at visitors from between the usual styrofoam tombstones and monster mannequins. Sorry I don't have many photos. I was hiding behind Hiroko most of the time.

Hey, there's ol' Hikoshiro Mitsui now!

In Yubara Onsen, the hanzaki is just another yokai. Note the kappa and the... Wait. is that a snake-necked Rokuro-kubi? RUN! RUN!!

 

Based on a True Story

They're here. They're weird. Get used to it. They're the YOKAI! That's right: Hiroko and I have had a little secret brewing for the last year or so:

Meet our newest book: Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide! Published by the fine folks at Kodansha International, it's what we believe is the world's first English-language guidebook to surviving potential encounters with monsters of Japanese myth and legend. For generations they were believed to have stalked Japan's mountains, forests, fields, coastlines, and towns. And who's to say they still aren't around? Written and created by Hiroko and I, illustrated by the talented manga-ka Tatsuya Morino, it's the last guide to Japan you'll ever need.

The book is organized by yokai, letting you take in important characteristics like pronunciation, size, locomotion, prevalence, danger level, and habitat at a glance. But don't let the "datafile" format fool you: this sucker is dense. Every entry also contains abundant info about each creature's historical/cultural background and modus operandi -- handy for surviving potential close encounters. It isn't "fiction," isn't anime or manga -- it's a collection of anecdotes and conventional wisdom about the creatures, giving you a leg up on the many references to yokai that appear in Japanese literature, film, anime, slang, and even cuisine (another serving of Kappa Maki, my friends?)

It's 196 pages covering almost fifty hand-picked favorites. It's coming out in America and Europe this fall, but it's going on sale this JUNE in Japanese bookstores!

Get to Know Your Local Yokai

Name: Namahage
Pronunciation: (NAH-mah HAH-gay)
English Name: Literally, “The Blister-Peeler”
Gender: Male (red) or female (blue)
Height: Approximately 6 ft. (180cm)
Habitat: Alpine regions in Akita Prefecture
Abundance: Prevalent
Offensive Weapons: Wide-bladed farm knife or machete
Photographed by: Hiroko, February 9, 2008 (Namahage Festival)

Ge Ge Ge no Go

I think the weather in July makes people horny.

Last year, I posted a partial translation of a discussion between legendary manga-ka Go Nagai and Monkey Punch. It was from the online magazine Moura ("Total Coverage"), an online portal of content culled from various Kodansha magazines.

This time, I've translated Moura's discussion between Go Nagai and yokai master Shigeru Mizuki, creator of the "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro" series. Conducted in 2002 when Mizuki was 80, it's a really fascinating look into the "kashi-bon" manga scene -- a now-extinct industry of shops that rented (rather than sold) comic books in the '50s and early '60s, just before weekly and monthly manga magazines debuted. Check it out after the jump.