Hello Readers!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a big update on the blog. Most of my updates over the past year have been geared towards the Kickstarter backers and done through that website, which has the unfortunate consequence of leaving my own website fairly barren.

Now that The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits is finished and published, I can finally share my next project with everybody, and I can do it on my own blog!

I have just launched a Patreon project at patreon.com/osarusan to create more yokai. Patreon is like Kickstarter, but instead of pledging a lump sum to get a book after a year, you pledge a small monthly contribution, like a tip, in order for me to continuously create work.

Through the Patreon project I am going to create a few yokai per month, which I will upload up to yokai.com, free for everyone to read. Backers will get regular yokai updates with new yokai posts and illustrations during this project, exactly like I did with my Kickstarters, and like I do during A-Yokai-A-Day. So if you would like to get regular yokai updates, please sign up! There are a number of small rewards at the various patron levels, too. You can sign up at patreon.com/osarusan.

Happy Halloween, yokai fans! The best day of the year is finally here! Is anyone dressing up as a yokai for Halloween? I have a kappa costume, and my wife is dressing up as a shishimai (which the mujina is wearing in this illustration).

Because Halloween is the whole purpose of A-Yokai-A-Day, I always save the most special yokai of the project for the final day. Today’s yokai is actually a pair of yokai; a father-daughter team, straight out of the legends. Taira no Masakado is one of the most famous figures in Japanese history, feared as a terrible ghost, and worshiped as a god to appease his anger. His daughter, Takiyasha-hime, was a powerful witch herself. What is more fitting for Halloween than a vengeful ghost and a witch? I don’t know!

These ones are bit long, too, so they should make for interesting reads. To read on, click the illustrations below!

…and don’t forgot, there are still a few hours left to buy my book, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, for only $1!

Taira no Masakado / 平将門 / たいらのまさかど

Takiyasha-hime / 滝夜叉姫 / たきやしゃひめ

Greetings everyone! It’s October 30th! That means it’s Mischief Night for all of you living in and around New Jersey, and just an ordinary day for all of you other folks. (I only recently learned that this is not a country-wide thing… how odd!)

I just got back from Night of Terror, a haunted hayride nearby, and boy was it fun! It also really put me in the mood for Halloween. There’s nothing at all like a good old fashioned haunted hayride. Aside from that though, the next best thing is of course ghost stories! And after watching a few of my favorite ghost movies, I am very much in the mood to post a ghost for today’s A-Yokai-A-Day. So here you are, for the day before Halloween, a ghost:

Goryō / 御霊 / ごりょう

Today’s yokai comes by request again. This one is another truly, truly bizarre one.

It cracks me up, it really does. There’s little else I can say about it. It is so bizarre, and so out there, and the intricate story that Toriyama Sekien wove when he created it is just mind-boggling.

I have spoken at length about Toriyama Sekien, and his amazing ability to write puns, as well as his amazing ability to poke scathing fun at things he considered immoral in his time: prostitution, religion, and homosexuality. This piece is of course no different. But I think it speaks for itself, so I will let you go on to read the article itself.

Oh, one more thing that fans might find interesting: the painting on the byobu in my illustration is actually taken from Toriyama Sekien’s second book, which serves as the inspiration for my second book. The illustrations you see there are “omagatoki” (i.e. the hour of meeting evil spirits) and “hinode” (sunrise) which are the opening and closing entries in my next book. Just a little fun fact for those of you who like tiny details as much as I do!

Anyway, read on:

Ookaburo / 大禿 / おおかぶろ

Oh, one more thing! From today until Halloween, you can get my first book, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, for just $1! Click here to get it!

Today’s yokai was a special request via Facebook: kosenjōbi.

There are lots and lots of fireball-type yokai. Collectively, they are called hinotama. Taking a step back futher, there is a special word in Japanese for supernatural fires: kaika. While researching for this book, part of what I covered was the etymology of the words used to describe evil spirits in Japan. (It also may be partially because I am a word geek and etymology draws me like a moth to a flame) As you might guess, there are countless words!

I’m reminded of the story about how Eskimos and Inuit peoples have dozens and dozens of words for snow because they are surrounded by it. I can only imagine that the reason Japanese has so many words for supernatural creatures is because they have played an important part in Japanese culture for thousands of years. (As a word geek, I am also aware that the Eskimo thing is a myth, but it does support the point I am trying to make so I’m just going to go with it.)

Anyway, here is today’s kaika. Click to read more: