The Book of Yōkai

Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

by Michael Dylan Foster & Kijin Shinonome

First published:
21st century
Language: English

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Description

Significantly expanded and updated - a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its increasing influence within global popular culture. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. "The Book of Yōkai" invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. Revised and expanded, this second edition features fifty new illustrations, including an all-new yōkai gallery of stunning color images tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. In clear and accessible language, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the cultural and historical contexts of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists, Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends, and Occultism and esotericism.

Occultism and esotericism
Retained metadata contains “supernatural” in the description.
- “supernatural”· in description
Ghosts, hauntings, and poltergeists
Controlled discovery queries from k10plus matched “Gespenst”. Retained metadata contains “ghost” in the description.
- “Gespenst”· via K10plus Union Catalog
- “ghost”· in description
Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends
Controlled discovery queries from openlibrary matched “Folklore”. Retained metadata contains “Folklore” in the subtitle, “Folklore” in the description, “Legends” in the description, and 5 additional metadata match(es).
- “Folklore”· via Open Library
- “Folklore”· in subtitle
- “Folklore”· in description
- “Legends”· in description
- “Folklore”· in subject
- “Legends”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

2 editions cataloged here.

Edition	Date	Publisher	Language	ISBN	Access	Links
mysterious creatures of Japanese folklore Expanded second edition Hier auch später erschienene, unveränderte Nachdrucke; Illustrationen; xxv, 449 Seiten	[2024]	University of California Press	English	9780520389557 9780520403888	Catalog record	K10plus Union Catalog (opens in a new tab) K10plus Union Catalog (opens in a new tab) K10plus Union Catalog (opens in a new tab)
The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore	Jan 14, 2015	University of California Press	—	9780520271029 0520271025	Print-disabled access	Open Library (opens in a new tab)