Water Spirits

A shark-shaped sea monster whose spine-covered tail pulls sailors under in near silence.

A dugong-like fish of Okinawa and the Amami islands, cast as a mermaid in a tale that warns fishermen of a tsunami.

A white glow that rises from the sea and stalls a boat until someone drives it off.

Her hair is always wet. Smile back at her, and she stays with you for life.

A booming, thunder-like sound over Urado Bay, counted as one of the three wonders of Tosa.

A kappa covered in hair like a monkey, which pulls swimmers under and takes the liver.

A small, hairy river creature of Kōchi and Tokushima that challenges people to sumo, and in some tellings swells in size as it loses.

The sea beast the hare of Inaba tricked—read as crocodile by some scholars and as shark by others.

A great serpent on the sea floor that demanded a girl every year.

A sea woman who comes ashore for the night's catch, close kin to the iso-onna of the western coasts.

A one-eyed, three-fingered shape rising from a flooded paddy, crying 'Give back my field!'

A whale of bare bones surfacing off Shimane in the rain, followed by fish and birds nobody can put a name to.

A river boy covered in hair, with teeth like a file, catching fish at the water's edge.

A baby-shaped thing in the river reeds—follow its cry and you end up in the water.

A blind, biwa-carrying giant who wades the open sea, drawn by Sekien with no word of explanation.

A scaled water-tiger relative of the kappa that bites children who tease it.

A hairy, grinning river yokai—cousin of the kappa—that loves eggplants and startles bathers.

A Japanese merfolk—part human, part fish—whose flesh grants immortality to whoever eats it.

A three-legged, beaked mermaid-like being that rises from the sea to foretell and ward off epidemics.

Ghosts of the drowned who beg for a ladle, then use it to swamp and sink your boat.

A savage ox-headed monster that haunts coasts and preys on humans.

A river otter that shapeshifts and plays tricks, a smaller cousin of the kappa.

A turban-snail that lives long enough to become a shapeshifting sea demon.

A giant spider that takes the form of a seductive woman to ensnare men.

An unseen presence heard washing red beans by the river at night.

A huge black sea spirit that rises to capsize ships in calm waters.

A serpent-bodied woman by the water who lures victims to their doom.

A mischievous, turtle-like river imp with a water-filled dish on its head.