Japanese folklore

samurai of the Satsuma domain, supreme commander of Japanese army, one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration (1828-1877)

thumb|Maneki-neko with motorized arm beckons customers to buy lottery tickets in Tokyo, Japan

pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle “see/hear/speak no evil”, depicted as three monkeys

Japanese monogatari and folktale

18th century samurai battle

a female samurai warrior who fought during the Genpei War from 1180 to 1185 CE

traditional Japanese doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism

thumb|Yūrei, Bakemono no e scroll, [[Brigham Young University]] are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include , meaning ruined or departed spirit, , meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing or . Like their Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife.

thumb|Benkei by Kikuchi Yōsai , popularly known by the mononym Benkei (), was a Japanese warrior monk (sōhei) who lived in the latter years of the Heian Period (794–1185). Benkei led a varied life, first becoming a monk, then a mountain ascetic, and then a rogue warrior. He later came to respect and serve the famous warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune, also known as Ushiwakamaru. He is commonly depicted as a man of great strength and loyalty, and a popular subject of Japanese folklore showcased in many ancient and modern literature and productions.

serpentine creature in Japanese mythology

species of mammal

thumb|upright=1.3|A ( artist) in Tokyo. is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the postwar period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that they placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing each image.

Japanese outlaw

thumb|Depiction of an onryō in the , by Katsushika Hokusai.

thumb|180px|right|A young Kintarō battling Namazu, in a print by Yoshitoshi is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a yama-uba ("mountain witch") on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching Shuten-dōji, the terror of the region around Mount Ōe, he became a loyal follower of Minamoto no Yorimitsu under the new name . He is a popular figure in Bunraku and kabuki drama, and it is a custom to put up a Kintarō doll on Boy's Day in the hope that boys will become equally brave and strong.

right|thumb|300px|The amabie. Woodblock printing in Japan|Woodblock print, late Edo period, dated [[Kōka 3 (1846).]] is a legendary Japanese mermaid or merman with a bird beak-like mouth and three legs or tail-fins, who allegedly emerges from the sea, prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic, and instructed people to make copies of its likeness to defend against illness.

thumb|"Yamauba" (山うば) from the Hyakkai Zukan by Sawaki Suushi thumb|Yamamuba (山むば) from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, [[Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.|alt=]] thumb|"Yamauba" (山姥) from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by [[Toriyama Sekien]] thumb|right|A depiction of Yama-uba by Totoya Hokkei (1780–1850), yamamba, and yamanba are variations on the name of a yōkai found in Japanese folklore. Mostly said to resemble women, yamauba may be depicted as predatory monsters or benevolent beings.

General and shogun

In Japanese folklore, tsukumogami (付喪神 or つくも神, lit. "tool kami") are tools that have acquired a kami or spirit. According to an annotated version of The Tales of Ise titled Ise Monogatari Shō, there is a theory originally from the Onmyōki (陰陽記) that foxes and tanuki, among other beings, that have lived for at least a hundred years and changed forms are considered tsukumogami. In modern times, the term can also be written 九十九神 (literally ninety-nine kami), to emphasize the agedness.

folk traditions of Japan, expressed in oral traditions, customs, and material culture

Japanese doll

Japanese onmyōji

right|thumb|240px|Abe no Seimei and his (bottom right) before an assembly of god-like demon spirits

right|thumb| from the 1776 book by Sekien Toriyama

thumb|upright=1.3|Ubasute no tsuki (The Moon of Ubasute), one of the 100 works in the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, by [[Tsukioka Yoshitoshi]]

thumb|"Issun-bōshi" from Otogizōshi is the subject of a fairy tale from Japan. This story can be found in the old Japanese illustrated book Otogizōshi. Similar central figures and themes are known elsewhere in the world, as in the tradition of Tom Thumb in English folklore.

, sometimes also called , are spirit-like beings told about mostly in the Iwate Prefecture. They are said to be yokai that live in parlors or storage rooms, and that they perform pranks. It is believed that people who saw one would receive good fortune. There are also legends of how they would bring fortune to families. They are also known from Kunio Yanagita's Tōno Monogatari, Ishigami Mondō, and stories about them appear in the 17th and 18th chapters of the Tōno Monogatari and the 87th chapter titled "Zashiki-warashi" of the Tōno Monogatari Shūi. In the 17th chapter, it is written "families

right|thumb|Tamamo-no-Mae Woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

alt=|thumb|Ubume うぶめ from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, [[Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.]] are Japanese yōkai of pregnant women. They can also be written as ''''. Throughout folk stories and literature the identity and appearance of ubume varies. However, she is most commonly depicted as the spirit of a woman who has died during childbirth. Passersby will see her as a normal-looking woman carrying a baby. She will typically try to give the passerby her child then disappear. When

thumb|right|Tomori shisa is a traditional Ryukyuan cultural artifact and decoration derived from Chinese guardian lions, often seen in similar pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and a dog, from Okinawan mythology. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from some evils. People place pairs of shisa on their rooftops or flanking the gates to their houses, with the left shisa traditionally having a closed mouth, the right one an open mouth. The open mouth shisa traditionally wards off evil spirits, and the closed mouth shisa keeps good spirits in.

Japanese ghost story

thumb|300px|A dancing drummer wearing a Namahage costume, performed Namahage-Daiko in Akita Station. The are demonlike beings portrayed by men wearing hefty oni (ogre) masks and traditional straw capes (mino) during a New Year's ritual, in local northern Japanese folklore of the Oga Peninsula area of Akita Prefecture.

and are a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting.

Japanese folk tale

thumb|upright=1.3|right|Illustration from tale, published

1776 novel by Ueda Akinari

right|thumb|240px|"Kiyohime becomes serpent-bodied at Hidaka River" (1890) (or just Kiyo) in Japanese folklore is a character in the story of Anchin and Kiyohime, which dates back to the 11th century. In this story, she fell in love with a Buddhist monk named Anchin, but after her interest in the monk was rejected, she chased after him and transformed into a serpent in a rage, before killing him in a bell where he had hidden in the Dōjō-ji temple.

idiom of Japanese folklore: a mass parade of supernatural creatures

Japanese folk story

thumb|400px|Umibōzu, from the (pub. 1801) thumb|upright|The , a kibyōshi by . Here appears an umibōzu with scales and a fin.

thumb|Shuma Hiroyuki, later known as Jiraiya, using a heavy gun to defeat a huge snake that preyed on his toads.

thumb|Kakuryū Rikisaburō, a sumo wrestler, wearing a belt with Shide demonstrating his status as a [[Yorishiro]] is a Japanese word, meaning a (or deity) who is a human being. It first appeared in the () as the words of Yamato Takeru saying: "I am the son of an ."

traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow

Japanese folk story

are vengeful spirits (onryō), dead spirits (shiryō), live spirits (ikiryō), or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death. It is also a word sometimes used to refer to yōkai or henge ("changed beings").

Japanese folklore

parlor game

fictional human

right|thumb|Shirime as drawn by Yosa no Buson. is a yōkai with an eye in the place of his anus.

Japanese ghost story of betrayal

is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: () meaning and () meaning or .

right|thumb|180px|"Funayūrei" from the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki by [[Sekien Toriyama]] right|thumb|240px|Kawanabe Kyōsai's "Boatman and Funayūrei". An example of a funayūrei rendered as an umibōzu-like yokai. right|thumb|260px|An example of a funayūrei appearing as mysterious flames. From the Tosa Bakemono Ehon.

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Japanese well-known classic tales

thumb|Daidarabotchi graphic from the Kaidan-Hyakki-Zue. was a gigantic type of yōkai in Japanese mythology, sometimes said to pose as a mountain range when sleeping.

Japanese folk story

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right|thumb|The kitsune Kuzunoha. Note the shadow of a fox cast on the screen. Print by Kuniyoshi.

is the title given to fictionalized accounts in Japanese literature, theater, and film that relate to the historical incident involving the forty-seven rōnin and their mission to avenge the death of their master, Asano Naganori. Including the early , the story has been told in kabuki, bunraku, stage plays, films, novels, television shows and other media. With ten different television productions in the years 1997–2007 alone, Chūshingura ranks among the most familiar of all historical stories in Japan.

right|thumb|200px|"Jinjenju" (人面樹) from the Konjaku Hyakki Shūi by [[Toriyama Sekien]] Jinmenju or Ninmenju () is a type of Yōkai and Yaoguai in Japanese and Chinese folklore. It is commonly depicted as a tree bearing flowers that resemble human heads. It notably appears in the Edo period Konjaku Hyakki Shūi by Toriyama Sekien.