New to yokai? Start here. The word covers a huge range of spirits, creatures and strange phenomena in Japanese folklore, and it is easy to get lost. So this is a shortlist: the ten figures that are most useful to know before the rest makes sense, namely Oni, Kitsune, Hannya, Tengu, Kappa, Tanuki, Yurei, Jorogumo, Nekomata and Gashadokuro. Each one has its own deep-dive article on the blog when the subject deserves more room.
1. Oni (鬼): the guardian ogre
The Oni is a supernatural ogre, and it is better not to confuse it with the devil of the Christian tradition. You will know it by its horns, fangs, red or blue skin and iron club. It terrifies and punishes, but it also protects: onigawara roof tiles, carved with an Oni face, still guard temple roofs against misfortune. That double role, frightening and protective, is what makes it one of the most present figures in the whole of Japanese folklore.
Read the article about Oni masks · See Oni masks
2. Kitsune (狐): the sacred fox
The Kitsune is a fox that can take human form. As the messenger of the god Inari, tied to rice, commerce and prosperity, it can be a protector, then called Zenko, or a trickster, the Nogitsune. The older it grows, the more tails it gains, up to nine for the most powerful. It is probably the most visible yokai at Japanese festivals, where its white mask comes back every year.
Read the article about Kitsune · See Kitsune masks
3. Hannya (般若): the woman turned demon
The Hannya is not an Oni, even if the two are often mixed up. It represents a woman whose jealousy, or the pain of a betrayal, grew so strong that she turned into a horned demon. Its Noh mask has a famous quirk: it changes expression depending on the angle, shifting from rage when seen head-on to sorrow when tilted downward. It is also the most common mistake in the genre, with people pointing at a Hannya and calling it a cool Oni.
Read the article about Hannya masks · See Hannya masks
4. Tengu (天狗): the mountain swordmaster
The Tengu is a mountain spirit, halfway between a yokai and a deity. It appears in two main forms: the Karasu Tengu, with a crow beak and a warrior nature, and the Daitengu, with a long red nose and an almost divine status. That nose is so linked to pride that the phrase tengu ni naru, to become a Tengu, means in Japanese to have got a big head. Legend also casts it as a swordmaster: it was a Tengu, the king Sojobo of Mount Kurama, who is said to have taught swordsmanship to the young Yoshitsune.
Read the article about Tengu · See Tengu masks
5. Kappa (河童): the river creature
The Kappa lives in rivers and ponds. It is usually described as part turtle, part child, with a dish of water on its head: empty it, and it loses its strength. It loves sumo, it is mad about cucumbers, and it has a far less pleasant habit of grabbing people by the feet to drag them underwater. The way out, told across several regions, is almost a joke: bow to it politely. Ever courteous, the Kappa bows back, spills its dish, and finds itself powerless.
Read the article about Kappa · See the Kappa mask
6. Tanuki (狸): the lucky prankster
The Tanuki is a real animal, the raccoon dog, turned in folklore into a playful, shapeshifting, easy-living yokai. It is also known for its very generous anatomy, which carries nothing crude in Japanese culture: the oversized testicles stand for financial luck, originally through a pun on goldsmithing. You will find him everywhere in ceramic outside restaurants, straw hat on his head and a bottle of sake in hand.
7. Yurei (幽霊): the Japanese ghost
The Yurei is not a creature but a human spirit caught between life and death. It is pictured in a white burial kimono, with long black hair and no feet, floating above the ground. What holds it here is almost always a feeling too strong at the moment of death: regret, hatred or love. The most famous is Oiwa, disfigured by her husband and returning to haunt him, a story that shaped a large part of Japanese horror cinema.
8. Jorogumo (絡新婦): the spider woman
According to legend, the Jorogumo is a Trichonephila clavata spider, long classified as Nephila clavata, that after four hundred years takes the shape of a beautiful woman to seduce and devour men. She often plays the biwa, a lute, to enchant her prey before wrapping them in her silk. Her method is anything but brutal: she builds trust first, then slowly closes the trap.
Read the article about Jorogumo
9. Nekomata (猫又): the cat demon
The Nekomata is a house cat that, after several decades, turns into a yokai. Its tail splits in two, which gives it its name, forked cat. It is credited with speech, the ability to walk on two legs, and the power to puppet the dead. That fear was real enough that in old Japan some owners docked their cats tails to prevent the change. The Bakeneko is its weaker cousin.
Read the article about Nekomata and Bakeneko · See the Nekomata mask
10. Gashadokuro (がしゃどくろ): the giant skeleton
The Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton, around fifteen meters tall, built from the bones of soldiers who died in battle and were left without burial. It roams at night, seizes lone travellers and devours them. Its only weakness is a sound: a rattle of bones announces its approach. It is best known through a print by Kuniyoshi, in which the warrior Mitsukuni faces a giant skeleton summoned by Princess Takiyasha, around 1844, one of the most reproduced images in all of ukiyo-e.
Read the article about Gashadokuro
FAQ
What is the difference between a yokai and a yurei?
A yokai is a supernatural creature: an animal, an object or a spirit transformed. A yurei is a human ghost, the spirit of a dead person held between worlds by regret, hatred or love. A Kitsune is a yokai; Oiwa is a yurei.
Which yokai is the most dangerous?
In raw force, the Oni is the most destructive. The most cunning is probably the Jorogumo, who kills through seduction and patience, or the Gashadokuro, which is almost impossible to stop.
Are yokai based on real things?
Several began as real animals. The Kitsune is a fox, the Tanuki a raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides, the Jorogumo a Trichonephila clavata spider. Folklore simply amplified their natural traits into supernatural powers.