Animal Yokai

A shapeshifting fox spirit that gains tails and wisdom with age.

A nine-tailed fox disguised as a beautiful court lady who bewitches an emperor.

A fox that takes the shape of a beautiful woman and goes after men who are already spoken for.

A fox that served Tottori castle as a courier, and ran the road faster than any man.

Not a fox that haunts a house but one a household is said to keep, passed down the family line.

Mysterious floating fox-fires that lead travelers astray at night.

A jolly shapeshifting raccoon dog, rival prankster to the fox.

The tanuki who commanded eight hundred and eight others guarding Matsuyama castle, until a retainers' quarrel ended with the whole clan sealed in a cave.

The tanuki whose quarrel with Rokuemon became a war, and then a kōdan performance, and then a film.

The tanuki of Yashima, who would replay the Heike's last battle in the air for anyone who fed him well.

A tanuki enshrined as a guardian of cattle and horses—worshipped, not hunted.

The temple tea kettle that sprouted a tanuki's head, tail and legs—and would not stop boiling.

A shapeshifting tanuki that holds out a giant tobacco pipe and demands a toll from river boats.

A cat that gains supernatural powers with age and walks on two legs.

An old cat whose tail splits in two as it becomes a powerful yokai.

A two-tailed cat wearing a hearth trivet as a crown, puffing the embers back to life.

A fiery cat-beast that descends at funerals to snatch away the corpses of the dead.

A dog-spirit familiar that serves a family but can be sent to curse their enemies.

A dog that walks the mountain path behind you: stay on your feet and it sees you home, stumble and it is on you.

A dog with a man's face that outruns cars on the highway and tells people to leave it alone.

An eight-headed serpent that took a daughter a year from one family until a god got it drunk on eight vats of sake.

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

A thick, mallet-shaped snake with a gaping mouth that rolls down slopes at travelers.

A small snake kept in a jar by a household, which brings wealth and cannot be got rid of.

A spurned woman whose rage transforms her into a fire-breathing serpent to hunt down a fleeing monk.

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

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

A giant earth spider that ensnares heroes in monstrous webs.

A night heron whose feathers glow blue-white as it passes overhead—a real bird, and a real light.

A ghostly fire-breathing chicken whose cold flames give no heat.

Something that cries 'chi, chi, chi' like a sparrow and follows you, front and behind, on a mountain road at night.

A proud mountain spirit with a red face and long nose, master of martial arts.

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

A human-faced calf that is born, speaks a true prophecy of coming disaster, then dies.

A horse's head that dangles from an old hackberry tree, neighing to frighten passersby.

Whirlwind weasels that slash a traveler's legs with sickle-like claws, leaving painless wounds.

A possessing spirit neighbours blame when a household grows rich fast — and fear once that household's luck turns.

A weasel-shaped thing that goes for cattle and horses, listed among the beasts in an Edo encyclopedia.

It slips into a cattle shed at night, leaves a tiny wound, and the animal is dead by morning.

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

The vengeful monk Raigo reborn as a swarm of iron-toothed rats that devour scriptures.

A monkey-shaped creature with a pointed mouth that sucks a sleeper's breath. If someone else sees it, the sleeper lives long; if not, they die the next day.

A toad about 2.4 meters long in the Suō hills that does not chase its prey — it simply breathes it in.

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.

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

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

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

A chimeric night beast: monkey's face, tiger's limbs, snake for a tail.

A chimeric, tapir-like beast that devours nightmares when called upon after a bad dream.

A shrimp-like thing with scissor claws that snips mosquito nets and fishing nets with equal joy.