Which Yokai Are You?
Ten questions about your normal day. At the end, you find out which yokai you would come back as in your next life.
Ten questions about your normal day. No folklore knowledge needed. At the end, we tell you which Japanese yokai you would come back as in your next life.
About a minute
The ten questions are everyday moments, each written to stand for one item of the Mini-IPIP (Donnellan et al., 2006), a short, public-domain personality scale built on the Big Five. They are not the tested items themselves. Each yokai's character is our reading of what our articles record about it, with their sources. This is for fun, not a diagnosis.
The yokai you might get
Each one links to its full entry, with the old sources it comes from.
- Amabie アマビエ · The sea spirit with a warning
- Amanojaku 天邪鬼 · The demon who copies your words
- Bakeneko 化け猫 · The secret towel dance
- Baku 獏 · The eater of bad dreams
- Betobeto-san べとべとさん · The footsteps behind you
- Funayurei 船幽霊 · The voice that asks for a ladle
- Futakuchi-onna 二口女 · The woman with a second mouth
- Hanako-san 花子さん · The voice in the third stall
- Hasshaku-sama 八尺様 · The tall woman who copies voices
- Hitotsume-kozo 一つ目小僧 · The boy who plays with the scroll
- Hone-onna 骨女 · The love that comes with a lantern
- Jorogumo 絡新婦 · The thread by the water
- Kappa 河童 · The river child who bows back
- Kasa-obake 傘お化け · The umbrella that hops out of the alley
- Katawaguruma 片輪車 · The wheel that says don't look
- Kitsune 狐 · The fox who can become anyone
- Kiyohime 清姫 · The will that crosses the river
- Kodama 木霊 · The echo that answers in the woods
- Kuchisake-onna 口裂け女 · The woman who asks, "Am I pretty?"
- Kudan 件 · The calf that cannot lie
- Kurozuka 黒塚 · The secret in the back room
- Nekomata 猫又 · The tail that splits in two
- Nurarihyon 滑瓢 · The guest who never knocks
- Oni 鬼 · The rough crew from the island
- Osan-gitsune おさん狐 · The fox who cuts in
- Rokurokubi 轆轤首 · The neck that stretches in sleep
- Sanmoto Gorōzaemon 山本五郎左衛門 · The thirty-night wager
- Sarakazoe 皿数え · The voice that counts to nine
- Shibaten シバテン · The sumo match that lasts till dawn
- Shuten-doji 酒呑童子 · The host of the feast on Mt. Ōe
- Tamamo-no-Mae 玉藻前 · The favorite who outsmarted the scholars
- Tanuki 狸 · The belly drum in the night hills
- Teke-teke テケテケ · The sound of her coming
- Tengu 天狗 · The night teacher of Kurama
- Tsuchigumo 土蜘蛛 · The spider in a monk's robe
- Ubume 産女 · The baby that grows heavier
- Umibozu 海坊主 · The dark head that rises from a calm sea
- Yamata-no-Orochi 八岐大蛇 · The eight-headed serpent
- Yuki-onna 雪女 · The promise made on a snowy night
- Zashiki-warashi 座敷童 · The small footsteps in the back room
Questions about the quiz
What yokai am I?
Take the ten questions above. You get one of 40 yokai: what you want, what you fear, and the yokai that want turns into when it is held too tightly. You also see your family of yokai and your opposite.
How does it decide?
Your answers give five scores: energy, warmth, order, sensitivity and imagination. Each yokai has the same five scores, read from what its stories say it does. The trait you showed most clearly picks your family, and the yokai in that family closest to all five of your scores is your result. A kitsune, which can become a young woman, a monk or an object, belongs with the imaginative. A kappa, which always bows back and keeps its promises, belongs with the ones who keep their word.
Is it accurate?
The questions are built on a well-known personality model, but they are everyday scenes, not a tested scale. The yokai scores are our reading of the folklore. So take it as a story about you, for fun.
Can I get a different yokai?
Yes, if your answers change. Some yokai come up more often than others, because some families are bigger.