Japanese Supernatural Tales
Encounters with Yokai, Ghosts, Demons, and Other Strange Phenomena, from the Kojiki and The Tale of Genji to Dazai and Murakami

A haunting gathering of classic Japanese tales of monsters and demons, yōkai and oni and yūrei, that live on in popular manga, anime, J-horror films, and video games

A Penguin Classic

Flesh-eating oni demons, kappa water sprites, shapeshifting kitsune foxes, vengeful yūrei ghosts, and other monsters and magical creatures have long lurked in the shadows of Japanese culture, appearing as divine beings in eighth-century myths, dangerous demons in medieval literature, troublesome tricksters in local legends, and sinister predators in modern fiction. With dozens of stories, including twenty-four that have never been published in English, this volume showcases an incomparable range of the supernatural—from the beautiful ghost that seduces a widowed samurai, to the jorōgumo spiders that transform into women to ensnare their human prey, to the sentient reflection that unnerves a night watchman in Haruki Murakami’s “The Mirror”—inviting you into a realm of frightening otherness from a rich, thousand-year tradition.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of the notes, suggested further reading, primary sources, and the footnotes from the book