| Typology Yōkai |
| Total Entries 215 |
| Representative Yokai (Folklore) |
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妖怪 (Youkai/Yokai/Yōkai, roughly “bewitching spectres”) are a grand collection of various supernatural creatures and phenomena that pop up in “Shinto” religion, their spelling derived from the Chinese pinyin Yaoguai (“Our Yaoguai Are Different”). They have a lot in common with “The Fair Folk” — some youkai are good, others are evil, and many have their own alien set of values (“Blue and Orange Morality”). Some are mischievous, others avoid humans entirely. Shinto is an animist religion, and youkai are often associated with natural features such as forests and mountains. While sometimes glossed as “demons”, a closer Western equivalent is probably the ancient Roman genii, “The Fair Folk”, “monsters” (in the “Monster Mash” sense), or trolls in Scandinavian folklore (“All Trolls Are Different”)… Many types of youkai were codified during the Edo period in the works of Toriyama Sekien. The genre of manga that deals with Youkai was founded by Shigeru Mizuki (1922–2015), who was obsessed with Youkai ever since he was a child. The “Trope Codifier” of modern youkai manga is his ever-popular “GeGeGe no Kitarō” that has received an anime adaption at least once a decade since it was written. Among all these, the Three Great Youkai of Japan are a group of either three species (oni, kappa and tengu) or three individuals (the oni bandit Shuten-douji, the seductive fox Tamamo-no-Mae and the “ferocious demon king” Ootakemaru) considered to be especially famous. “Sister Trope” of “Our Yaoguai Are Different”, the Chinese counterpart of youkai — supernatural non-humans who gain their powers and longevity by Taoist cultivation. They share a kanji/Chinese character transcription and several potential characteristics, like “Voluntary Shapeshifting” powers and (super-)human intelligence, but are not synonymous due to regional variations… ~ Youkai – TV Tropes
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