Guides
The almanac has one page per creature. These are the pieces that cut across it — what a word actually means, which two spirits keep getting mistaken for each other, and what the Edo compilers thought they were doing.
explainer
Why Do So Many Yokai Live in Water?
Nine are at sea and seven are in rivers. None is in a pond. The sea ones take the boat; the river ones take a child.
explainer
Why Is the Fox Everywhere?
Three of our creatures are foxes. Twenty-four entries mention one. The fox is not a species here — it is the explanation.
explainer
Where the Tsukumogami 100-Year Rule Actually Comes From
The oldest source for the number quotes a book that has never been found. And the word itself means ninety-nine.
explainer
Are Japanese Ghosts Really All Women?
Twenty of our twenty-six are women. Only four of them are dead people. All three of the men are.
explainer
Why Japan Has So Many Mountain Yokai
The mountain fed you, and it stood between you and the next village. Most of these creatures come from the second one.
explainer
What Is a Yokai?
Not quite monster, not quite spirit. The word says something English has no single word for.
explainer
Toriyama Sekien
Four books in eight years. Eighty-one of the 116 creatures here name him, and that is the whole problem with the word ancient.
list
The Yokai Behind Naruto's Tailed Beasts
Everyone knows the fox. The other eight have sources too — and two of them are not yokai at all.
comparison
Yokai vs Yurei
Both of them haunt. Only one of them was ever a person.