History of Yōkai

177 views
Skip to first unread message

Ross Bender

unread,
Sep 14, 2024, 3:19:24 PM9/14/24
to pmjs
The first and only appearance of this term in the Rikkokushi is in Shoku Nihongi.. I know that this is a popular topic -- there is even The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore, by Michael Dylan Foster with illustrations by Shinonome Kijin. (University of California Press, 2015). This is an enormous book on the folklore surrounding these fascinating beings with some of their history, including the Shoku Nihongi reference.

According to the Chinese Text Project (ctext.org)  the graphs 妖怪 (yao-kuai) first appear in the Lunheng by Wang Chong in the Later Han, where he apparently critiques superstitions. 

Shoku Nihongi annals of the reign of Emperor Kōnin are increasingly pervaded by fears of strange phenomena, including the supposed sorcery of Empress Inoue, who died in 775, but was reburied in 777. Below are just two examples. The first is  怪 and the second is 妖怪 .
Also, Empress Inoue was accused of sorcery on two occasions. The terms used were fuko 
巫蠱 and enmi 厭魅. The first character of fuko refers to a female medium or shamaness, the second can mean a spell or incantation, a poisonous substance, or even a poisonous insect used in sorcery. Enmi, according to Muller's DDB CJKV-English Dictionary (buddhism-dict.net) has the possible meanings of "to be cast under a spell; to be tricked by a charming woman's flirtations", or, in a specifically Buddhist sense "a demon appealed to in order to raise a corpse and with it to cause the death of an enemy."

My impression is that one begins to see more of these uncanny, eerie, but vaguely defined phenomena in the Heian period. I'd be interested in any specific references to such things in other early literature.

Thanks,
Ross Bender

《宝亀五年（七七四）六月壬申【五】》○壬申。奉幣於山背国乙訓郡乙訓社。以犲狼之怪也。」

Hōki 5.6.5 (July 17, 774)

Mitegura were presented to the Otokuni Shinto Shrine of Otokuni District in Yamashiro Province. This was because of the uncanny appearance of wild wolves. 

《宝亀八年（七七七）三月辛未【十九】》○辛未。大祓。為宮中頻有妖怪也。

Hōki 8.3.19 (May 1, 777)

Great Purification Rite. This was due to repeated uncanny phenomena[1] in the palace.


[1] 妖怪 – yōkai. Monsters, demons, goblins, specters. This is the only appearance of the term in Shoku Nihongi and the Rikkokushi.

Mikael Bauer, Dr.

unread,
Sep 14, 2024, 6:25:12 PM9/14/24
to pmjs
Dear Ross,
you might know of this book, but just in case: Pandemonium and Parade by Foster is quite interesting to add, especially its chapter 'Natural History of the Weird' (and connection with the compilation of encyclopedia....), which I assign alongside the works of Inoue Enryo on Yokai. 
Best,
Mikael Bauer
From: pm...@googlegroups.com <pm...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ross Bender <rosslyn...@gmail.com>
Sent: September 14, 2024 3:17 PM
To: pmjs <pm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [PMJS] History of Yōkai
 
--
PMJS is a forum dedicated to the study of premodern Japan.
To post to the list, email pm...@googlegroups.com
For the PMJS Terms of Use and more resources, please visit www.pmjs.org.
Contact the moderation team at mod...@pmjs.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PMJS: Listserv" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pmjs+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pmjs/CAMEQgpFhAKKcrpDoCih_qaZ2h-wgRmQrV-By%2Babh4OiejU2prw%40mail.gmail.com.

David Eason

unread,
Sep 15, 2024, 12:08:18 AM9/15/24
to pm...@googlegroups.com
Dear Fellow Members of PMJS,

In reading through this recent thread about yōkai, I was reminded of the contents of an extremely popular course regularly taught for visiting exchange students here at Kansai Gaidai by the late Dr. Mark Hollstein. Although entitled “Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan,” the first few class sessions focused on representations of yōkai in Edo-period popular culture before then proceeding to cover a diverse assortment of more modern materials and themes thereafter. Posted prior to his sudden passing in the spring of 2023, a copy of the most recent iteration of his course syllabus remains publicly available at -


and includes a wide range of references to English-language readings that may be of use to those with an interest in this topic.

Sincerely,

David Eason

--
Dr. David Eason (デービット・イーソン)
関西外国語大学外国語学部准教授
「己が分を知りて及ばざる時は速かに止むを智といふべし」


2024/09/15 午前7:25、Mikael Bauer, Dr. <mikael...@mcgill.ca>のメール:



Ross Bender

unread,
Sep 19, 2024, 11:35:21 AM9/19/24
to pm...@googlegroups.com

After a quick dive into the history of the weird I found the following. My impression, as I noted before, is that the Heian period was when uncanny things really exploded in the “Japanese popular imagination,” to quote Noriko Reider. In the later years covered by the Shoku Nihongi chronicle, this tendency is seen to be emerging. (The attached bibliography, which aided me in finding this material, is courtesy of Mr. Leonardo Wolfe.)

Ross Bender


Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura.  Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai (1973, Harvard)

“In the Heian period the belief in spirits of the dead grew into a morbid fear of evil and vindictive spirits, but the Nihon Ryōiki already exhibits such a tendency. It was believed that, after a violent death, often as a result of political intrigue, the spirit would not leave the body but would linger in this world to haunt the living.” (p. 82)

 

Noriko T. Reider [Asian Folklore Studies 66:1 (2007)]

Onmyōji Sex, Pathos, and Grotesquery in Yumemakura Baku’s Oni

“The Heian period … was when the oni’s influence on the Japanese popular imagination was at its peak.”


Elizabeth Oyler [Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 68:2 (2008)]

The Nue and Other Monsters in Heike Monogatari

“In Japanese, monsters generally fall under the rubric of yōkai, the word that Inoue Enryō utilized when coining the term yōkaigaku….Yet this term is imbricated with many other terms describing the strange or unusual….The semantics of all the Japanese terms used generally signal the quality of being unusual.”

 

Noriko T. Reider [Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 36:2 (2009)]

Animating Objects: Tsukumogami ki and the Medieval Illustration of Shingon Truth (with translation of Tsukumogami ki, Muromachi period)

“Although animate tools appear sporadically in the late Heian period, the application of the name tsukumogami to animate objects is largely a medieval phenomenon…”

 

Elizabeth Lillehoj [Asian Folklore Studies 54:1 (1995)]

Transfiguration: Man-Made Objects as Demons in Japanese Scrolls

“The Shinju-an scroll is the oldest surviving hyakki yakō emaki and is thought to have been painted in the first half of the sixteenth century.”

Japanese Mythology and Folklore.pdf

Leonardo Wolfe

unread,
May 29, 2025, 9:26:14 PM5/29/25
to PMJS: Listserv
Dear Dr. Bender and all,

Apologies for resurrecting this post, but somebody recently asked for a list of yōkai depicted in the 百鬼夜行.

Whilst I'm sure that others, such as Professor Michael Dylan Foster, may know more about this topic than myself, I recalled seeing a news article about Dr. Misako Nagura obtaining her PhD at the age of 73 [Link]. Regarding this, Dr. Nagura's thesis specifically focuses on the Shinju-an version, which is considered to be the oldest.

Some of Dr. Nagura's published work can be viewed here:


In case the above link should stop working, her PhD thesis is available here:


I believe that she has also published a book based on her thesis, which can be found here:

https://amzn.asia/d/9P5ZfN7

Furthermore, an analysis of depictions of the 百鬼夜行 can be found below, and at the bottom of the page is a non-exhaustive appendix of other copies/versions.:


Kind regards,
Leonardo Wolfe

BSc (Hons) (SOAS) - International Management (Japan & Korea)
MA Student (SOAS) - Buddhist Studies

Michelle Li

unread,
May 30, 2025, 12:01:26 AM5/30/25
to pm...@googlegroups.com
Hi All, 
I’m enjoying this discussion. I’d like to add humbly that the book I wrote, Ambiguous Bodies: Reading the Grotesque in Japanese Setsuwa Tales, is also related to this theme.
Warm regards,
Michelle Li

--
PMJS is a forum dedicated to the study of premodern Japan.
To post to the list, email pm...@googlegroups.com
For the PMJS Terms of Use and more resources, please visit www.pmjs.org.
Contact the moderation team at mod...@pmjs.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PMJS: Listserv" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pmjs+uns...@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages