Overview

Significantly expanded and updated—a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its increasing influence within global popular culture. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. Revised and expanded, this second edition features fifty new illustrations, including an all-new yōkai gallery of stunning color images tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. In clear and accessible language, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the cultural and historical contexts of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Dylan Foster ,  Shinonome Kijin
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Edition:   2nd edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.771kg
ISBN:  

9780520403888

ISBN 10:   0520403886
Pages:   480
Publication Date:   22 October 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations  Preface and Acknowledgments  Names, Dates, Places  PART I. YOKAI CULTURE  1. Introducing Yōkai  Yōkai, Folklore, and This Book  The Language of Yōkai  Event Becomes Object  Questioning Yōkai  2. Shape-Shifting History  Heroes of Myth and Legend  Weird Tales and Weird Tastes  Modern Disciplines  Postwar Animation and the Yōkai Boom  3. Yōkai Practice / Yōkai Theory  Yōkai Culture Network  Zones of Uncertainty  PART II. YOKAI CODEX  4. The Order of Yōkai  5. Wilds  6. Water  7. Countryside  8. Village and City  9. Home  PART III. YOKAI GALLERY  10. Seeing Yōkai  11. Illustrating Yōkai  12. A Completely Incomplete Yōkai Exhibition  Epilogue: Monsterful  Notes  Bibliography  Alphabetized List of Yōkai in the Codex  Index 

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Author Information

Michael Dylan Foster is Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. He is author of many works on Japanese folklore, including Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai.  

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