My next event is coming up in October, at the Takefu Kiku Ningyo festival.

This year my yokai art was selected as one of the themes for the festival. I’ve enjoyed the kiku ningyo festival every year since I moved to Japan in 2007, so getting to participate like this is real honor and a thrill.

Some of the yokai featured in the festival will be ones from my latest book, Echizen-Wakasa Kidan, co-authored with Nagano Eishun. Several of the tales in the book feature yokai and strange events that occurred in and around Echizen City, and I am glad they will be featured as a local attraction!

On 10/25 Nagano Eishun and I will be doing a talk event at Takefu Kiku Ningyo, along with Kono Junya, founder of Kyoto’s Haku Yō Bako yokai art collective.

I hope to see you all there!

Signatures, APs, and custom tokens will be available (as well as books, postcards, prints, and other goods).

Details can be found at the event’s website.

MTG 妖怪サイン会

I hope to see you there!

The stamps feature tales from across Fukui Prefecture: Magoemon’s Wife (from Ono City, Fukui), The Ghost of Shibata Katsuie (Fukui City, Fukui), The Demon Pond (Minamiechizen Town, Fukui), The Holy Man’s Rug (Obama City, Fukui), and The Name of Wakasa (Wakasa Province).

The Japanese language version of Echizen-Wakasa Kidan is out now in stores throughout Japan, and will be made available on Yokai.com after copies have been sent out to Kickstarter backers. The English version will be available later this year.

Japan Post held a ceremony this morning to announce the release of the stamps. Here I am with PosKuma, one of Japan Post’s mascot bears. I hate speaking in front of people and I am always nervous at these kinds of things, but big plush mascots are helpful in reducing the pressure.

The stamps will only be available while supplies last. I hope they will help to raise awareness about Fukui’s rich history and folklore!

The stamps go on sale August 3rd. They feature characters from the tales Magoemon’s Wife, The Ghost of Shibata Katsuie, The Demon Pond, The Holy Man’s Rug, and The Name of Wakasa, all from Echizen-Wakasa Kidan (currently available in Japanese, English version coming soon).

Limited supplies available. You can read the press release here (Japanese): https://www.post.japanpost.jp/enjoy/culture/stamp/frame/detail.php?id=3840

As usual, this year I will be participating in Kyoto’s Mononoke Ichi yokai art market. It takes place on July 19-20 at the Daishōgun Hachi-jinja Shrine in Hakubaichō, not far from the Kitano Tenmangū Shrine.

If you’re in Kyoto this July, don’t miss out! This is one of my favorite yokai events, full of passionate yokai artists and crafters, as well as featuring some of the best yokai cosplay you can see anywhere in the world.

Since July is hot, this event takes place in the afternoon until nightfall, making it all the more perfect an atmosphere for a yokai event.

I hope you see you there!

I’ll be giving a talk about yokai and kaidan with Kyoto-based yokai researcher Kōno Jun’ya down in Osaka this May 2, at the Osaka Museum of History. As you can tell by the poster below, some of this will have to do with Koizumi Yakumo (aka Lafcadio Hearn), as he has been in the news a lot lately with the conclusion of the morning TV drama “Bake Bake” / “The Ghost-Writer’s Wife.” There will also be a biwa-player and kaidan-teller! That should be extremely cool!

Click on the poster below to register. I hope to see you there!

This book started out as a talk on yokai studies in the digital age at Teikyō University a couple of years ago. I contributed illustrations (including the cover illustration), as well as one section of the book. The rest of it is co-authored by several yokai scholars including:

Watanabe Mizuki
Associate Professor, Department of Tourism Policy, Faculty of Regional Policy, Takasaki University of Economics
Kagawa Masanobu
Curator, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History
Hirota Ryuhei
Assistant Professor, Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Letters, Daito Bunka University
Matsumoto Kentaro
Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dokkyo University
Takemura Masaharu
Professor, Liberal Arts Department, Kagurazaka Campus, Institute for Liberal Arts Education, Tokyo University of Science

Unlike my previous book with Kasama, this is a Japanese-language-only book, so the audience probably does not align too closely with readers of my blog. It’s an academic work, rather than a purely entertainment-focused one, but it is still quite entertaining and interesting. The book itself is gorgeous, and the design is really cool. Kasama Shoin really puts out great-looking stuff!

You can pre-order the book from Kasama Shoin’s website, or from Amazon and other booksellers.

I’ll be giving a yokai talk at Goshōshi Temple in Echizen City this weekend, and the second half of my exhibition at the Children’s History Museum here in Fukui City is going on right now.

But the main event of this month is my big exhibit at Fukui Shimbun’s Kaze no Mori Hall, from November 15 to 24. Here is the flyer:

I hope to see you there!