Yokai Illustrated: Volume 1: A Color Field Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Creatures of Japanese Folklore (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798256154189)

Meet twenty of Japan's strangest, funniest, and most terrifying monsters in a full-color illustrated field guide to the world of the yokai.

For centuries, Japan's forests, rivers, crossroads, and quiet corners of the home have belonged to the yokai: shape-shifting tricksters, vengeful spirits, and everyday objects that wake up with opinions, born from one of the world's richest folklore traditions. Yokai Illustrated is a story-first, art-forward bestiary of that hidden world. Every creature receives a striking full-page color illustration by Kuro Hoshi, inspired by Edo-period woodblock prints, and a witty profile that tells its legend in plain language: where it lurks, what it wants, its most famous encounters with humans, and what it reveals about Japanese culture. No academic jargon, no dry catalog entries.

Inside are twenty fully illustrated yokai profiles:

- Kappa, the river imp undone by its own politeness

- Karasu-tengu, the raven-headed trickster who duels samurai

- Hanadaka-tengu, the long-nosed mountain guardian who tests the worthy

- Zashiki Warashi, the child spirit that brings a household good fortune

- Wanyudo, the flaming wheel bearing a damned nobleman's face

- Neko-mata, the two-tailed cat that commands the dead

- Nue, the chimera that terrorized the Imperial Palace

- Funa-yurei, drowned sailors who rise to sink the living

- Umi-bozu, the giant sea monk that swallows ships whole

- O-dokuro, the colossal skeleton built from the unburied dead

- Konaki Jiji, the crying infant that crushes whoever picks it up

- Tsuchi-gumo, the giant spider lurking in mountain caves

- Tesso, the monk whose rage became a swarm of iron rats

- Tearai Oni, the demon that washes its hands in rivers of blood

- Futakuchi Onna, the woman hiding a ravenous second mouth

- Onibaba, the demon hag who feasts on her guests

- Tofu Kozo, the boy whose gift of tofu carries a curse

- Akaname, the filth licker that thrives in dirty bathrooms

- Azuki Arai, the bean washer whose eerie song stops travelers cold

- Seto Taisho, the pottery general assembled from broken dishes

An introduction traces the history of yokai from Japan's earliest village legends through their Edo-period golden age of woodblock prints and illustrated encyclopedias to their modern revival in manga and anime - the path that carried these creatures from Toriyama Sekien's bestiaries to today's screens.

Perfect for readers of Japanese folklore and mythology, collectors of illustrated bestiaries and yokai art, manga and anime fans curious about the legends behind their favorite stories, and anyone building a Halloween reading stack - and a striking gift book for every lover of Japan, equally at home on the coffee table and the library shelf.

This is Volume 1 of the Yokai Illustrated series: start your field notes here, and keep watch in every shadow.