page_title: Yōkai
section_title: Concept
hierarchical_section_title: Yōkai / Concept
context_page_description: Yōkai are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "bewitching; attractive; calamity" and "spectre; apparition; mystery; suspicious." They can also be called ayakashi, mononoke or mamono. Yōkai range diversely from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them.
  Yōkai often possess animal features, yet others appear mostly human like kuchisake-onna. Some yōkai look like inanimate objects, while others have no discernible shape. Yōkai usually have spiritual or supernatural abilities, with shapeshifting being the most common. Yōkai that shapeshift are called bakemono or obake.
  Japanese folklorists and historians explain yōkai as personifications of "supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants." In the Edo period, many artists, such as Toriyama Sekien, invented new yōkai by taking inspiration from folk tales or purely from their own imagination. Today, several such yōkai are mistaken to originate in more traditional folklore.
context_section_description: What is thought of as "supernatural" depends on the time period; but generally, the older the time period, the greater the amount of phenomena that were deemed supernatural in character or cause.
  According to Japanese ideas of animism, spirit-like entities were believed to reside in all things. Such spirits possessed emotions and personalities. If the spirit were peaceful, it was a nigi-mitama, bringing good fortune—such as bountiful harvests. Violent spirits, ara-mitama, brought ill fortune—including illness and natural disasters. One's ancestors and particularly-respected departed elders could be deemed nigi-mitama, accruing status as protective gods and receiving worship. Animals, objects and natural features or phenomena were also venerated as nigi-mitama or propitiated as ara-mitama—depending on the area.
  The ritual for converting ara-mitama into nigi-mitama was called the chinkon ("the calming of the spirits"). Chinkon rituals were performed to quell maleficent spirits, prevent misfortune and alleviate fear from events and circumstances that could not otherwise be explained. Ara-mitama that failed to achieve deification due to lack of sufficient veneration, or who lost their divinity following attrition of worshipers, became yōkai.
  Over time, those things thought to be supernatural became fewer and fewer.  Meanwhile, depictions of yōkai in emaki and paintings began to standardize, turning into caricatures and softening their fearsome natures. Elements from tales of yōkai were increasingly mined for public entertainment. Use of yōkai in popular media began as early as the Middle Ages. However, the mythology and lore of yōkai became more defined and formalized during the Edo period and after.
caption: "Tsuchigumo" from the Shinkei Sanjurokkai Sen (新形三十六怪撰) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
exif: {}