The History of Japanese Monsters

In Japan, monsters—or really any otherworldly or inexplicable being—are known as yōkai. One of the first compilations of yōkai, the 18th-century Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (“Continued Illustrations of the Many Demons Past and Present”), contained 54 entries. Wikipedia lists almost 300 “legendary creatures from Japan,” including kamaitachi (a “slashing sickle-clawed weasel that haunts the mountains”), gashadokuro (“a giant skeleton that is the spirit of the unburied dead”), and tsurube-otoshi (“a monster that drops out of the tops of trees”). Yōkai have inspired at least two Internet databases.