Editorial Policy

How sources are handled

• We prefer primary sources: Edo-period bestiaries such as Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, older tale collections, and folklore scholarship.
• Each entry names the earliest work we know that records the creature. Entries and guides end with a list of the works they name, with author and date.
• We never fill a gap with a made-up citation. If we do not know the page or the edition, we do not write one.
• Some famous yokai are modern. Where a name or a look comes from the 20th century, the entry says so.
• Facts and interpretations are kept apart. When we offer a reading, the sentence says it is one.

What a person does

• Keeps the source list. Every creature on the list has the earliest work that records it, with a date. A creature with no traceable source is not written about.
• Chooses what to cover. This includes which creatures to skip, such as designs that belong to a modern artist.
• Sets the rules. The checks below were written by people, often after a mistake slipped through.
• Answers corrections. Reader emails are read and acted on by a person.

What is checked by machine

• The source list.Every creature on the list must name its earliest source. An entry’s region must match its row in the list, and links between creatures must point to real entries.
• Claims about modern works.Some entries explain why a manga, anime or game uses a yokai. A sentence that states a fact there needs a source. A sentence that is only our reading must say so, with words like “probably” or “likely”.
• Readability. Many readers learned English as a second language. New pages are scored, and long tangled sentences are rewritten.
• Structure of the guides. A guide must answer its question early and must not repeat the same point.

These checks catch many problems, but not all of them. A machine cannot tell whether a reading of an old story is a good one. That is why the corrections address below matters.

How pages are produced

Pages are drafted with an AI writing model, working only from the source ledger. Illustrations are generated with an AI image model in one fixed house style, based on Edo-period bestiary prints. They are our reading of the old descriptions, not historical images. Yokai entries publish on a schedule after the machine checks above. Guides get an extra review of their structure before they publish.

The byline

Pages are signed Kaito Mori, the pen name of Yokai Almanac. The process behind it is the one described on this page.

Ads and affiliate links

The site may show ads. Some book links are affiliate links, which pay us a small fee if you buy. Neither one decides which yokai we cover or what we say about them.

Corrections

Found a wrong date, a wrong source, or a story told badly? Email info@yokailore.com. Please tell us the page and, if you can, your source. We check it and fix the page.