Yokai Attack

The Japanese Monster Survival Guide

Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

Illustrations by Tatsuya Morino

Kodansha International

Bookwise 2008 (Australia)

The term Yokai is used in Japanese folklore to refer to the diverse denizens of the spirit world ranging from ghosts through to goblins, dwarves, nature spirits and a range of other strange and wonderful creatures. Since Japan is primarily a Buddhist country, the Yokai tend to be a mixture of traditional animist and nature spirits overlaid with the later adopted Buddhist cosmology. This mixing of traditions is significant since Buddhism does not believe in either a personal god nor an ultimate “good or evil” and hence the Yokai range from the naughty to nice, malevolent to ambivalent and most are somewhere in-between, depending on their mood and bearing. While the term Yokai is sometimes translated as hobgoblin, the two Japanese characters actually simply means otherworldly or weird. It was in 1776 with the “Illustrated Night Parade of Demons” that the first major iconographic representation of the Yokai began with fifty rather picturesque images. This is still considered a work of major significance within Japanese literature.

Due to a strange twist of fate a westerner had a major influence on the revival of interest in the Yokai. In 1890 Patrick Lafcadio Hearn gained Japanese citizenship after developing a fascination with Japanese culture. He took the name Koizumi Yakumo and married Setsu Koizumi, the daughter of a local samurai family. He took a teaching position and wrote a wide range of books about Japanese folklore and ghost tales. He wrote some fourteen books (and many more articles) including the influential Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things in 1903 which was to become a major film of the same name by Masaki Kobayashi in 1964.

His books led to a revival of interest in the field, which was further fuelled by a range of Manga comics about the Yokai penned in the late Fifties, known as Hakaba Kitarō (Graveyard Kitaro) by Shigeru Mizuki. These were later developed into the anime series Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. Anime took to the traditions of Yokai and a wide range of films continue to be produced. One of the most spectacular is The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô 2005) by Takashi Miike, a film which literally includes hundreds of Yokai !

Yokai Attack is a spectacular guide to the Yokai, lovingly researched and beautifully illustrated; it offers an encyclopaedia of Japanese folklore packaged for today’s lover of manga, anime and cinema.

It offers an excellent overview of Yokai history and terminology and divides them according to their general characteristics i.e. Ferocious Fiends, Gruesome Gourmets, Annoying Neighbours, the Sexy and the Slimy and the Wimps. Each Yokai is described in some detail. For example, let’s choose Tofu Kozo.

We find Tofu Kozu is Yokai 16 in the Gruesome Gourmet section, we learn the pronunciation of his name, his English name (Tofu Boy), his height, weight and various features and of course his favourite food and weapon, in this case they are both Tofu !!! We also learn about his habitat and an extensive outline of his claim to fame in folklore accompanied by a nice full page colour image. This is followed with details of how he attacks, how to survive an encounter with Tofu boy and quite a bit more, even some Tofo proverbs !

Yokai attacks is quite an extensive guide and concludes with a good resources section covering some great movies and websites. Its comic style illustrations and superb presentation make it a fun, entertaining and informative guide to an important facet of Japanese folklore and cinema.