Japanese Ghost Stories

choi

Robert Ito, Pokémon’s Spooky Ancestors; Reviving the dreaded and beloved ghosts of Japan. New York Times, May 24, 2015.
www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/arts/ ... beloved-ghosts.html

Excerpt in the window of print: Seeking a back story after being raised on anime and manga.
Note:
(1) Pokémon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon
(section 1 Name)

(2) “In one tale, a tanuki playfully transforms into a steam train but then gets flattened by a real train coming from the opposite direction.”
(a)
(i) For tanuki, see raccoon dog
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_dog
(Nyctereutes procyonoides; indigenous to East Asia; the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes; view the map for range)

Quote: “Among the Canidae, the raccoon dog shares the habit of regularly climbing trees only with the North American gray fox * * * The raccoon dog is named for its resemblance to the raccoon (Procyon lotor), to which it is not closely related

(A) Primarily nocturnal.
(B) The “tanuki” is Japanese pronunciation of 狸.
(C) The raccoon dog in China is 貉.
(D) 果子貍 is masked palm civet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_palm_civet
(a civet species; view map for range)
(ii) raccoon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon

View the map for range.
(b)
(i) steam train (n): "(railways) a locomotive powered by steam"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/steam-train
(ii) steam locomotive
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive

choi

(3) "Fantastical monsters like the tanuki abound in Michael Dylan Foster’s 'The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore' (University of California Press[, January 2015]), one of several books about yokai that have hit American shelves this year.  In June, Zack Davisson will publish ‘Yurei: The Japanese Ghost’ (Chin Music Press), a critical look at the history of some of Japan’s most dreaded and beloved spooks."

The Book of Yōkai
www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271029

(4) Japanese English dictionary
* yōkai 妖怪 【ようかい】 (n)
* yūrei 幽霊 【ゆうれい】 (n)
* moku 目 【もく】 (n): “(1) {biol} order [as in 界門綱目科屬種 (Taiwan and China) and 界門綱目科族種 (Japan)]; (2) item (of a budget revision, etc.) [such as 項目・綱目・細目・条目]; (3) (See 囲碁) counter for go pieces; counter for surrounded positions (in go).”
  ^ In fact, 目 as “moku” also means “eye” in Japanese, such as 刮目・耳目・衆目・属目・注目・眉目・瞑目・面目・頭目.
  ^ The “moku” and “me” are Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of 目, respectively.
* warabe/ wappa  童 【わらべ;  わっぱ】 (n): "(arch[aic]) (See [the modern term] 子供) child"
* kamikakushi 神隠し 【かみかくし】 (n): "mysterious disappearance; being spirited away"
  ^  kakushi 隠し 【かくし】 (n): "hiding; concealing; being hidden; being concealed"
* ogi 荻 【おぎ】 (n): “Amur silvergrass (Miscanthus sacchariflorus”
  ^ Search 荻 in images.google.com (not in en.wikiedia, which shows young plants) and you will realize 荻 in Japan and China       means the same plant.
* ojiisan おじいさん (n): (1): "(usu. お祖父さん) grandfather; (2) (usu. お爺さん [‘婆さん’ for female]) male senior-citizen"
* baba ばば《婆》 (n) "old woman"
* zeni 銭 【ぜに】 (n): "round coin with a (square) hole in the center"
* kozō 小僧 【こぞう】 (n): "(1) youngster; (2) young Buddhist priest; (3) young shopboy; errand boy; apprentice"
* sara 皿 【さら】 (n): "dish"
* yashiki 屋敷(P); 邸(P) 【やしき】 (n): "residence; estate; grounds; premises; mansion"
* yuki 雪 【ゆき】 (n): "snow"
* maboroshi 幻 【まぼろし】 (n): "phantom; vision; illusion; dream; apparition"
* bake 化け 【ばけ】 (n): "transforming oneself; taking on another form"

choi

(5) "Michael Goldstein’s 'Yokai Character Collection' (PanAm Books[, Mar 2, 2015 (for children)]) is more pictorial. * * * The book’s illustrator, Chip Boles, seemed to have fun imagining what beasts like a mokumokuren, a 'sliding door filled with hundreds of eyes,' and a kappa, a water demon often blamed for drowning horses and humans, might look like."
(a) mokumokuren  目目連
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokumokuren

For "moku," see (3).
(b) kappa (folklore)  河童
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_(folklore)
(The name is a combination of the word kawa (river) and wappa, an inflection of warabe (child); used to warn children of the dangers lurking in rivers and lakes)
(i) The “kawa” can be represented by kanji 川 or 河.
(ii) inflection (n; Latin verb flectere to bend):
"1:  the act or result of curving or bending :  BEND
2:  change in pitch or loudness of the voice
3a:  the change of form that words undergo to mark such distinctions as those of case, gender, number, tense, person, mood, or voice"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inflection

(6) “And then there’s Matthew Meyer’s forthcoming ‘The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits,’ an encyclopedic look at yokai”
(a) Matthew Meyer, The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits; An encyclopedia of mononoke and magic.
(i) The e-book published by and sold through Amazon starts on June 1, 2015 (whose Web page says, “In Japan, it is said that there are 8 million kami”) -- and the paperback by a yet unnamed publisher, in mid-June.
(ii) The shin/ jin and kami are Chinese and Japanese pronunciations, respectively, of kanji 神.
(b) The Kickstarter website shows "418 backers pledged $27,210 to help bring this project to life."

choi

(7) “hordes [of yokai] have appeared in the films of Hayao Miyazaki 宮崎 駿 (the clicking, bobble-headed kodama, or tree spirits, in ‘Princess Mononoke’; much of the cast of ‘Spirited Away,’ which won the 2003 Oscar for best animated feature).”
(a) kodama (spirit)  木霊 /木魂
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodama_(spirit)
(b) Princess Mononoke  もののけ姫
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke
(The term "Mononoke" (物の怪 or もののけ) is not a name, but a Japanese word [noun] for a spirit or monster; released in Japan in 1997)
(c) Spirited Away  千と千尋の神隠し
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away
(i) Chihiro
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihiro
("千尋 thousand fathoms" where 1 fathom = 6 feet, so 千尋 means “great depth; bottomless” according Jim Breen’s online Japanese dictionary)

* The “sen” and “chi” (as in 千代田, a ward of Tokyo, meaning “[rice]field of a thousand generations”--en.wikipedia.org) are Chinese and Japanese pronunciations, respectively, of kanji 千.
(ii) cast of characters:
* Chihiro OGINO  荻野 千尋
* Kamaji (actually kamajii, where the double "i" signals a long vowel)  釜爺
  ^ The noun “kama”--defeined as “iron pot, kettle” in Breen’s dictionary--is “炊飯や湯沸し用の金属製の道具 [cooking rice and boiling water]” (ja.wikipedia.org), so the size is not so big (as to boil a human, for example).
  ^ See ojiisan in (4).
* "the witch, Yubaba 湯婆婆" in bathhouse 湯屋
  ^ See "baba" in (4).
* Yubaba's baby son Boh (actually Bō) 坊
* Zeniba 銭婆
  ^ See "zeni" in (4).
* No-Face  カオナシ (katakana pronounced as "kaonashi" where "kao" (noun) and "nashi" (noun suffix) respectively are Japanese pronunciations for 顔 and 無し).

choi

(8) “Pokémon, the multibillion-dollar toy and video game empire, bases many of its characters on yokai. So does the most recent challenge to Pokémon’s cultural dominance, the best-selling video game and anime series ‘Yo-Kai Watch,’ which makes no effort to hide its creative sources.”

Yo-Kai Watch
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Kai_Watch
(2013- ; video games developed by Noriyuki KONISHI 小西紀行 (漫画家) and published by 小学館 based in Tokyo)
(9) “Mr Foster, a folklore professor at Indiana University and author of “Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai[. University of California Press, 2008]’ ”

The same Foster as in (3).
(10) “Stories about yokai have been popular in Japan for centuries, from the 11th-century classic ‘The Tale of Genji,’ in which they’re called mononoke, or ‘mysterious things [explaining mononoke],’ to contemporary anime series. The yokai themselves are everywhere in Japan, in films and cartoons, on billboards and even on beer bottle labels. The latest yokai craze began in the 1980s and has been going strong ever since, part of a long history of booms that dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868). Last year, ‘Yo-Kai Watch’ was the top-selling video game in Japan, and there are plans to release the game in the United States this year.”

(11) “In ‘The Book of Yokai,’ Mr Foster draws from texts and folk tales dating back to Japan’s Heian period, from the works of the 10th-century writer Abe no Seimei (a midlevel bureaucrat who has been reborn in contemporary manga and anime as a young, beautifully androgynous sorcerer) to the tales of the early-20th-century scholar and avid story collector Kunio Yanagita, considered one of the founders of Japanese folklore studies.”
(a) ABE no Seimei  安倍の晴明
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_no_Seimei
(921 – 1005; was an onmyōji 陰陽師, a leading specialist of onmyōdō 陰陽道)
(b) Kunio YANAGITA  柳田 國男
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunio_Yanagita
(1875 – 1962)

(12) “There are also beasts whose stories have been lost, but whose images remain, like the tofu-kozō 豆腐小僧, a bigheaded servant boy holding a block of uncooked tofu.”
(a) Search 豆腐小僧 in images.google.com.
(b) For 小僧, see (4).

choi

(13) “Among the creepiest of yokai are the yurei, spirits of the dead who look nothing like typical Western ghosts. In ‘Yurei: The Japanese Ghost,’ Mr Davisson [cross reference with (3)], a translator of a number of classic manga, profiles several yurei. Two of the most famous are the tragic Okiku, a young girl who threw herself down a well (or was thrown) after breaking one of her master’s prized dishes, and Oiwa, a hapless wife cursed with just about the worst husband ever (she is usually depicted with her left eye dripping down her cheek, the result of her spouse’s botched attempt to kill her with poison).
(a) Banchō Sarayashiki  番町 皿屋敷
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banchō_Sarayashiki
(Okiku became a vengeful spirit (Onryō) who tormented her murderer)
(i) cast of character:
* Okiku  お菊 (The "kiku" is Chinese pronunciation of 菊, which has no Japanese pronunciation.)
* AOYAMA Tessan 青山 鉄山
(ii) onryō  怨霊
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onryō
(iii) For the location, where it was supposed to happen, see Himeji Castle  姫路城
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle
(at Himeji, yōgo Prefecture 兵庫県 姫路市 (50km northwest of prefectural capital 神戸市; section 3.1 Lore and legend)
Yotsuya Kaidan  四谷怪談
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuya_Kaidan
(the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon; Written in 1825 by TSURUYA Nanboku IV [the fourth generation of] 鶴屋 南北 as a kabuki play)
(a) Reportedly it happened at 四谷, presently 東京都新宿区左門町.
(b) cast of character:
* wife Oiwa  お岩
* husband TAMIYA Iemon  田宮 伊右衛門
(c) Markus Sesko, 'Mondo no Shô' 主水正 and 'Shume no Kami 主馬首.' June 18, 2013 (blog)
markussesko.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/mondo-no-sho-and-shume-no-kami/
(“At that time [Kamakura period 鎌倉時代], almost all honorary titles conferred to swordsmiths were from the so-called ‘kyôkan’ sphere (京官) of court offices. The term ‘kyôkan’ referred to all offices which resided permanently in Kyôto and which were responsible for issues dealing with the capital itself. For examplies the so-called ‘Eight Minstries’ (hasshô, 八省), the gate-keeper and bodyguards (emonfu, 衛門府) or the palace guards (konoefu, 近衛府). As we know, the swordsmiths bearing these titles did not have any special rights or functions connected with the actual office. They were as the name suggests ‘honorary’ titles. * * * By the Muromachi period [桃山時代], many of the earlier kyôkan titles had been adopted to be used in first names, not only among swordsmiths of course. That means palace guard titles like ‘saemon no jô’ (左衛門尉), ‘uemon no jô’ (右衛門尉) or ‘hyôe no jô’ (兵衛尉) were now used as part of the first name”)

choi

(14) “Yurei have inspired countless paintings and illustrations over the centuries, but perhaps the most influential is Maruyama Okyo’s ‘The Ghost of Oyuki’ (1750), a portrait that the artist made of his recently deceased lover. Her ghost — long black hair, pale clothing, no feet — appeared to him in a dream, and his painting set the visual mold for every Japanese ghost to come, from paintings and prints to Kabuki characters and horror films. “After that painting,” Mr. Davisson said, “that’s how they all looked.”
(a) MARUYAMA Ōkyo  円山 応挙
(b) In print and online, the long, yellowish painting (the legend is “a ghost depicted on an 18th-century scroll”) IS “The Ghost of Oyuki お雪の幻.”

(15) “Bill Tsutsui, a Japanologist and author of ‘Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters.’ ”

William M Tsutsui,  Godzilla on My Mind; Fifty years of the king of monsters. Palgrave Macmillan Trade, 2004 (paperback).

(16) photo legend: “Four illustrations from Michael Dylan Foster’s ‘The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore’ “
(a) 垢嘗: a monster that eats the scum of a bathtub.
(b) "天月嘗" is a misnomer.

It should be  "天井嘗（てんじょうなめ） [reproduced from] 『百器徒然袋』"
www.youkaiwiki.com/entry/2013/02/07/234715
, denoting a monster that licks the ceilings.
(c) 髪切り
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/髪切り
(a monster that stealthily cut human hair)
(d) For 鳴屋, see 家鳴
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/家鳴
(家や家具が理由もなく揺れ出す現象 [translation: house or furniture shakes for no reason])
(e) For 傘化け, see kasabake  からかさ小僧   唐傘小僧
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/からかさ小僧
(a ghost in Chinese umbrella)