It’s June and the summer heat is slowly creeping its way towards us! But we still have a few weeks before the temperature becomes unbearable!
May and June are really beautiful in rural Japan. The buckwheat is golden, and the rice paddies are flooded and full of fresh green sprouts. There are storks and herons everywhere, hunting bullfrogs and insects in the fields. Pheasants are screaming their mating calls as they patrol the gardens and chase other animals away from their nests.
Of course it’s also a good time for yokai. The changing of the seasons is strongly associated with yokai. In ancient times, season changes were associated with the powerful forces of yin and yang, and the space between the seasons was one of the places where yokai could break into our world from theirs. Aobouzu (from The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits) is one of these yokai that is associated with the change from spring to summer.
Speaking of that book, I just did an article for Folklore Thursday featuring some of the characters from that book. If you haven’t seen it, here is the link.
Also, I recently started using Instagram again, so if you can find me @matthewmeyerart.
Now, on to this month’s yokai plans!
Last month a few yokai entries mentioned other yokai that I haven’t done yet. I like doing yokai that have “partners” so to speak. So this month we’ll be looking at:
1) Amabie, which was referenced in the jinja hime post.
2) Fuguruma yohi, who goes sort of as a pair with chirizuka kaiou and is also pun based off the same passage of the Tsurezura gusa.
3+) Some tsukumogami! Everyone loves tsukumogami and since we looked at the king of the tsukumogami last month, it’s only fitting that we give him some subjects!
More to come soon!
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