“Yokai” is one of those words that is impossible to translate from Japanese into English, so generally “yokai” is considered acceptable today. But  years ago, authors and translators tried their best to translate every word into English instead of leaving some in their native Japanese (in old books you’ll see kimonos called “dresses,” sushi called “raw fish,” and weird titles like “duke” and “prince” attached to Japanese rulers’ names). Many of these attempts at translation have used “fairy,” “goblin,” “monster,” or “demon.” I actually have an old book of Japanese “fairy tales” which are anything but fairy tales! “Monster” isn’t too far off, and certainly some of them closely resemble demons, fairies, or goblins, but none of these truly fit as an all-encompassing definition.

Today’s preview is one that I’ve seen translated as “one-eyed goblin” and actually fairly accurately fits that translation. Hitotsume means “one eye,” and kozou literally means “little monk” but is a general nickname for young boys and children. In any case, this yokai certainly is the most goblin-y of of the ones we’ve seen so far.

Hitotsume Kozou

I’ve posted a number of yokai that were featured in my earlier A-Yokai-A-Day project, so their background is probably familiar to regular readers of my blog. But not all of the yokai in this book are repeats of yokai I’ve featured on my blog. Here is one that I haven’t posted about before: the Nozuchi, along with its text from the book.

Nozuchi

The Nozuchi is one of the earliest known yokai recorded in Japan histories. It is a powerful and ancient snake-like spirit of the fields known for its bizarre shape and habits.

Nozuchi are short, fat creatures shaped like mallets, about fifteen centimeters in diameter and just over one meter long. They have no eyes, nose, or any other facial features save for a large mouth located on the top of their head, pointing towards the sky. Their bodies are covered in a bristly fur, much like a hairy caterpillar. They make their homes inside of large trees, particularly on the tops of hills. They are slow movers, and move about by rolling and tumbling down slopes, then slowly inching their way back up. Nozuchi most often feed on wildlife: rats, rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals. They are able to eat things much larger than they are; particularly in Nara prefecture they are known to feed on deer, which they can devour in a single bite, pulling the whole animal into their small, stumpy frame. They are also known to attack humans who come near their nests, rolling downhill and snapping at their feet.

Nozuchi bites are very dangerous to humans, resulting in terrible, mangled wounds which quickly lead to a high fever and death in most cases. In some cases, a person who is merely seen or touched by a tumbling Nozuchi can contract this fever and possibly die. Fortunately, Nozuchi attacks are easily avoided by sticking to high ground where they cannot tumble, or climbing a tree quickly if no other high ground is available.

Nozuchi can tranform into a humanoid shape, though they rarely are seen in this alternate form. They take the shape of a human priest, but with no eyes, nose, hair, or ears. The only feature on the head is a large gaping mouth pointing upwards towards the sky. Wicked monks who are banished from their temples to live in the wilds sometimes gradually turn into Nozuchi, and are more likely to maintain a humanoid form than a serpentine one. Care should be taken not to confuse a shape-changed Nozuchi with a Nopperabou, which has a similar appearance but poses a different threat.

Everybody’s favorite tree spirit is back today, with my illustration of Kodama from my upcoming book The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. You most probably know Kodama as the cute little forest sprites in Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. The truth is, they go back much further than that movie. They are the souls of trees, and have been part of Japanese folklore for centuries.

Kodama share a resemblance with another yokai we’ve seen previously: the Yamabiko. As you may recall, Yamabiko are responsible for delayed echoes and strange noises in the mountains. Similarly, when your echo comes back delayed or distorted deep in the forest, it can be blamed on a Kodama.

The oldest and most sacred trees — ones most likely to have a Kodama living inside them — are often decorated with the famous Shinto rope, known as a shimenawa. Shimenawa are commonly seen decorating shrines, rocks, trees, and other sacred objects and places. Next time you’re in the forest, look for these glowing spirits fluttering about in the twilight. Or, when you get home, check your camera. They most commonly show up in the flash photos, as Google Image Search illustrates.

Kodama

While we had a couple of cool, cloudy, rainy days last week, today’s weather is bright, hot, and muggy. The quintessential midsummer day. So instead of a soft painting in subtle blues and cool colors, here is a bright, hot one.

Today’s preview is another yokai we’ve seen before. I did a Houou for last year’s A-Yokai-A-Day project. So I won’t go too much into the details of its story, as you can read about it back there. Needless to say, though, it is the king of all birds, and I hope this very colorful piece shows that.

A little bit about my upcoming Kickstarter project…

We’re now coming into the final week of July! Holy smokes! That means soon I will be launching my Kickstarter project, which will run for the month of August. I will be trying to raise $2000 to cover the costs of publishing, printing, and so on through Amazon’s CreateSpace, as well as recoup some of the costs of working on this since January. I will have a larger breakdown of the costs when I launch the project next week. The give you an idea of the patronage rewards, the lowest will be simply $1, and it will include previews of all of the paintings like you’ve been seeing on my blog, as well as additional previews (such as the concept artwork that leads to the paintings) and previews of the actual text that will be in the book next to each yokai. These detailed previews won’t be public on my blog, so you’ll have to become a patron to see the extra stuff. Higher levels of patronage will include ebooks and lower-priced physical books signed by me, and there will be an option to buy any of the yokai in the book as a large, beautiful, matted print. They won’t be available individually on my Etsy store, so the only way to get prints of these will be as a patron. Finally, there will be some more, very interesting, patronage options at higher levels than that, which I will reveal next week along with the project. Basically, if you are thinking of buying the book, it will be very worth it to become a patron. I hope the previews so far have been enough to catch your interest! 🙂

Houou

Today was another overcast, cool, and slightly rainy day. Such a welcome respite from the July heat! I hear back home in the States some places are hitting well over 100 degrees. Yikes. Stay cool!

To go with today’s weather, and to help cool down all of you back in the great heat wave over North America, here is a refreshing cool, watery yokai. It is called Onibi, or demon fire, and it is found near lakes and rivers, especially on misty summer mornings and evenings. Onibi is usually a ball of phantom blue fire — sometimes red or orange — which hovers over the water’s edge. They bob up and down and are very beautiful and mesmerizing. Folks who get close enough to Onibi find out that it isn’t even hot to the touch, and it seems like a fun plaything except for the fact that it sucks the life force out of any living creatures that come near it… So if you see an inviting glow at a Japanese watering hole, stay away!

There is a very large number of fireball-type yokai. You’ve already seen Hitodama earlier, and now Onibi. There is another one which will be featured in this book as well, and a great deal that I won’t cover just yet. Collectively they are known as Hinotama, or literally “fireballs.” Good name, eh?

I think it’s interesting how there are some yokai that are so similar to European monsters. The English Will o’ Wisp, for example, is a near exact analogy to many of these Hinotama phenomena. It makes you wonder if there really isn’t something real behind most of these monsters and yokai. Maybe not something supernatural, but at the very least a common human experience, explained to the best of our abilities. Little things like this make me realize how small the world really is, and how even on the complete opposite side of the planet, we are all still the same human beings, with the same hopes, fears, and experiences.

Onibi

We’ve been under the shadow of a typhoon for the past few days, which has given us a welcome respite from the sweltering heat and scorching sun we’ve had this month. Thinking of the typhoon always makes me think of the tropics, and of my college years in Florida, so I painted this tropical yokai, the Kijimunaa, a native of Okinawa.

Kijimunaa live in Banyan trees, which also remind me of Florida. Our campus had a huge old banyan tree that was great for climbing. You could climb up to the roof of the school in that tree as long as no security guards were around.

These yokai are the quintessential forest boys. They’re almost a South Pacific version of Link. They live in trees, often near human villages, and occasionally do good deeds for virtuous human beings. They are excellent fishers, and help fishermen bring in catches. They are also tricksters and magicians, and have a very short fuse — once you anger a Kijimunaa, it will hate you for the rest of its life. One way to anger it is to refuse to come out and play when it asks you, no matter what time of day or night. Another way is to fart in its presence, which they really hate!

Their favorite food is fish eyes, so if you happen upon a beach and find some dead fish with no eyes, that’s a sign Kijimunaa are around!

Kijimunaa