The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition

The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition

Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

By Michael Dylan Foster Illustrated by Shinonome Kijin
Paperback $32.95 Hardcover $45.00 eBook $32.95

$32.95

Publication Date: 22nd October 2024

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... Read More
-36 in stock
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... Read More
Description
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.
Details
  • Price: $32.95
  • Pages: 480
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Imprint: University of California Press
  • Publication Date: 22nd October 2024
  • Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
  • Illustration Note: 61 color illustrations, 23 b-w illustrations
  • ISBN: 9780520403888
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    LITERARY CRITICISM / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies
    HISTORY / Asia / Japan
    HISTORY / Asia / General
Author Bio
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.
 
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 
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.
  • Price: $32.95
  • Pages: 480
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Imprint: University of California Press
  • Publication Date: 22nd October 2024
  • Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
  • Illustrations Note: 61 color illustrations, 23 b-w illustrations
  • ISBN: 9780520403888
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    LITERARY CRITICISM / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies
    HISTORY / Asia / Japan
    HISTORY / Asia / General
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.
 
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