Japanese Supernatural Tales

A terrifying gathering of more than classic Japanese tales of monsters and demons, yokai and oni and yrei, that live on in popular contemporary manga, anime, J-horror films, and video games A Penguin ClassicFlesh-eating oni demons, kappa water sprites, shapeshifting kitsune foxes, vengeful yrei ghostsmonsters and magical creatures haunt Japanese history and literature. They appear as moralistic figures in eighth-century folktales, comic relief in Edo-era kabuki plays, ghostly encounters in the storytelling game hyaku-monogatari, and sinister predators in contemporary detective novels. This volume brings together an incomparabel range--more than one thousand years worth, from premodern to modern--of the most horrifying and enduring supernatural stories that have exploded in popularity in anime, video games, and horror movies.