Yōkai or 妖怪。怖い物語だらけ！

英語面白物語－２６７６：０８－２１－’２１

（Amusing English Story)

A seriese of Japanese ghost stories―”Oh, 怖わ物語”

Yōkai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A  yōkai 『百怪図巻』：佐脇嵩之’s Dog Ghost.

Yōkai (妖怪, “strange apparition”) are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word \ ‘yōkai’  is composed of the  kanji for “attractive; calamity” and “apparition; mystery; suspicious.”Yōkai” are also referred to as ayakashi(あやかし), mononoke(物の怪) or mamono (魔物). Yokai are not literally demons in the Western sense of the word, but are instead spirits and entities, whose behaviour can range from malevolent or mischievous to friendly, fortuitous, or helpful to humans. The nearest or equivalent definition for yōkai in Western world should be “spectre/specter“.

Yōkai  often have animal features (such as the kappa, depicted as appearing similar to a turtle, and the tengu, commonly depicted with wings), but may also appear humanoid in appearance, such as the  kuchisake-onna. Some yōkai resemble inanimate objects (such as the tsukumogami), while others have no discernible shape. Yōkai are typically described as having spiritual or supernatural abilities, with shapeshifting being the most common trait associated with them. Yōkai that shapeshift are known as bakemono (化物) or obake (お化け).

Japanese folklorists and historians explain yōkai as personifications of “supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants.” In the Edo period, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien, invented new yōkai by taking inspiration from folk tales or purely from their own imagination. Today, several such yōkai (such as the amikiri) are mistaken to originate in more traditional folklore.

Now, for our curiosity, let’s look at some weird Yokai drawing in old France, which is suggesting something to us in this Covid-20..yes, 20 version crisis. This is from “コレラの蔓延を死神に例えた挿絵：ル・プティ・ジュルナル”, but imagine this could be potential situation of death by the killer Covid-20..This was disaster imagined brought by Corela pandemic of then Europe.

Author of this blog: M. James. Maeda of 「浦嶋ビジネス英会話インターネット道場」http//urashimamaeda.wordpress.com