About This Site
Yokai.com is a production of Yokai.com GK (ććäŒç€ŸYOKAI.COM) and is written, illustrated, and maintained by Matthew Meyer.
This site is kept ad-free and paywall-free thanks to the backers of this Patreon project. Your support covers hosting and maintenance fees, and helps to continuously add new yĆkai to this site every month. To become a yokai.com patron, visit patreon.com/theyokaiguy.
This web site began as a Halloween art project called A-YĆkai-A-Day, in which I painted and introduced one yĆkai on my blog every day for the month of October. It quickly became popular, and the following year I did A-YĆkai-A-Day again, and again each year after that. It became the starting point for my first book. Eventually it made sense to put my yĆkai work on its own domain apart from my blog. Yokai.com opened in 2013 and has been growing steadily since then.
This website is intended as an introduction to the supernatural creatures and phenomena of Japanese folklore known as yĆkai. It is not the final authority on any particular yĆkai or yĆkai in general. It is not an all-inclusive or exhaustive collection. There are far more stories and descriptions for each yĆkai than could ever fit on these small pages. It will never be able to cover all of the yĆkai that have ever been thought up.
This site deals with folklore. Folklore belongs to everyone and is full of contradictions. Many entries on this site have multiple explanations which contradict each other. Each yokai’s definition has changed over time, and will continue to change for as long as their stories are told. This inherent uncertaintyâthe inability to know what is “correct”âcan be confusing. However, it is one of the primary points of enjoyment in yĆkai lore. The essence of yĆkai is that they are mysterious and unknowable. To fully comprehend yĆkai is impossible; indeed it goes against their very nature.
While sources are often mentioned within the texts, you will notice a lack of inline citations in each entry. This is on purpose. Although great care is taken to ensure that all entries are accurately researched from original sources and folklore, this website is not intended as an academic research project. It is meant for the enjoyment and appreciation of yĆkai, free from the pretense of being authoritative or canonical. Citations and sources can be provided for any particular entry upon request.
The entries on this site are presented in the following format:
YĆkai Name
Japanese writing of the yĆkai name
(in kanji, katakana, and/or hiragana)
Translation: an English translation of the name. Note that this is not the “English name.” It’s just an explanation of the meaning of the name. YĆkai should be referred to by their native Japanese names rather than by translations.
Alternate names: regional names, nicknames, different readings of the kanji, and other variations the yĆkai goes by. Note that some common yĆkai have too many alternative names to list them all here.
Habitat: where the yĆkai might be encountered or where it normally lives, if it is specified in the folklore.
Diet: what the yĆkai feeds on, or dietary preferences, if specified in folklore.
Appearance: a brief description of the yĆkai including its physical presentation and its most famous traits.
Behavior: the yĆkai’s natural behavior and role in society, if known.
Interactions: the yĆkai’s behavior when encountering humans or interacting with human society.
Origins: information on how the yĆkai came to be part of Japanese folklore, deeper meanings and etymology of its names, its development over time, its relationship to Japanese history and culture, peculiarities or contradictions in various accounts, and noteworthy sources or appearances of the yĆkai.
Legends: the typical story patterns the yĆkai follows , or a summary of its most well-known story.
