Yokai Illustrated

They're weird. They're wild. They're waiting for you. Yokai Illustrated Volume 2 is a full-color field guide to 19 creatures of Japanese folklore - the shape-shifters, the tricksters and the things that should not move - each brought to life in an original illustration by Kuro Hoshi.

Meet them all: the fox-spirit Kitsune, who marries a man and keeps her secret for years; the Tanuki, who turns himself into a teapot and runs away laughing; the Yuki-onna, whose breath freezes travellers where they stand; the Rokuro-kubi, whose neck unspools while her body sleeps; the serpent-bodied Nure-onna and her impossibly heavy baby; the hopping one-eyed umbrella Kara-kasa; the thousand-eyed Mokumokuren that watches through the holes in paper screens; the invisible wall Nurikabe; the hundred-year-old household objects called Tsukumo-gami; the faceless Nopperabo; the human-faced tree Jinmenju; the hand-eyed Te-no-me; the reeking blob Nuppeppo; the one-eyed goblin Hitotsume Kozo; the schoolhouse ghost Toire no Hanako; the slit-mouthed Kuchisake Onna; the New Year ogres Namahage; the back-riding Obariyon; and the smoke spirit Enen-ra.

Every entry follows the same clear pattern: who the yokai is, the classic tale that made it famous, and what it has come to mean - from Edo-period woodblock prints to modern anime, manga and video games. An opening chapter explains what "yokai" actually means, and traces the tradition from Toriyama Sekien's 1776 Gazu Hyakki Yako (Illustrated Demons' Night Parade) through the Edo and Meiji heyday, the scholars who tried to debunk it, and its revival by Lafcadio Hearn and Shigeru Mizuki.

This is not a scholarly monograph and not a book of reproduced antique prints. It is an illustrated bestiary built to be read for pleasure: short, vivid entries that give a newcomer the story and the meaning in a single sitting, and give the folklore enthusiast the creatures the popular guides leave out - Mokumokuren, Jinmenju, Te-no-me, Obariyon, Enen-ra.

Warning: this book is not for the faint of heart, or for those who prefer boring bedtime stories.

Printed in full color on a large 8.5 x 8.5 in page, with Kuro Hoshi's artwork given room to breathe. A standalone volume - Volume 1 is not required reading - and a natural gift for readers of Japanese mythology, folklore and horror, for anime and manga fans, and for artists and writers hunting reference. Second edition.