Yokai of Kantō

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

A mountain spirit that appears only on clear days and simply cannot be seen when it rains.

The classic Japanese ghost: white burial robe, black hair unbound, no feet below the knee.

Okiku's ghost rising from the well, counting nine plates and never once reaching ten.

An old woman who blows out the lantern in your hand and leaves you standing in the dark.

A giant, tattered zatō who haunts Edo's back streets on stormy nights, always bound for the same brothel to play his shamisen.

The family Buddha come loose from a neglected altar, black and glistening, its eyes dangling on their stalks.

The starved monk of a ruined temple, still ringing an evening bell that no one comes to hear.

A clawed thing that peers down through the skylight on the one night you are required to stay awake.

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

The idler's yokai: a man who did nothing with his life, reborn as a thing that licks lamp oil and does nothing still.

A shrine bell grown into a dancing woman—the sound of kagura, finally given a face.

A monk who peers up through the privy floor on New Year's Eve—unless you say his name first.

A cart of old love letters, and the woman shaped from the longing that was never sent.

The king of the rubbish heap, who rules every object you decided you were finished with.

A stack of retired Noh masks that begins, at night, to work through its whole repertoire.

A water jar so old it never runs dry—the rare tsukumogami that rewards a household instead of punishing it.

An old woman with a snake coiled around each arm, guarding the grave of her serpent husband.

Hearth smoke that drifts into the shape of a woman—seen only by those pure enough to see it.

A giant woman's laughter rolling down over the pleasure quarters, and never stopping.

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

A century-old mirror that stops reflecting the room and starts showing whatever it pleases.

A mildewed dust cloth that takes flight and wraps itself around a sleeping face.

A worn-out futon that crawls off its shelf at night to strangle whoever sleeps on it.

A woman who stretches her body impossibly tall to peer, envious, into upper-floor windows.

A voice that suddenly bellows 'Uwan!' from an empty, dilapidated house—and nothing more.

A small ball of shaggy hair that lurks in damp corners and brings illness where it settles.

A forgotten koto that comes alive to sound old melodies no one plays anymore.

A little general armored in cast-off cups and plates who marshals the household crockery.

A discarded biwa lute turned spirit that wanders playing itself and lamenting its neglect.

A swarm of eyes that opens across the torn paper screens of a neglected room.

A blue-lit specter that appears when the hundredth ghost story is told by lantern light.

A colossal skeleton assembled from the bones of the unburied dead that roams to crush the living.

A colossal giant whose footsteps shaped Japan's lakes, hills, and valleys.

A harmless boy yokai who trots through the rain carrying a block of tofu.

A courtesan whose face and body are entirely hidden by cascading hair.

A skeletal woman who, seen as beautiful only by her lover, visits him each night.

A thieving woman whose arms sprout countless bird-eyes as punishment for stealing coins.

A long-necked yokai that licks ceilings, leaving the dark stains you see overhead.

A small yokai that creeps into dirty bathhouses at night to lick up the grime.

A split-mouthed paper lantern spirit with a lolling tongue.

A one-eyed, one-legged umbrella come to life—an icon of tool-spirits.

A woman with a second, ravenous mouth hidden at the back of her head.

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

A childlike, one-eyed monk yokai that startles people on lonely roads.

A woman whose neck stretches to impossible lengths at night.

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

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