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."
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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)
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.
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