These Japanese mythical creatures were born from disaster

Published January 3, 2024

Ghosts of children playing in the living room. Spirits that pull the unsuspecting to a watery demise. Deities that descend from the mountains to punish those who don’t pull their weight. These are some of the creatures that inhabit the folktales of Tohoku, the northernmost region on the main island of Japan, where an isolated geography, harsh climate, and disasters provided fodder for the imaginations of those who live there.

Anyone who has scrolled through the emoji menu has been exposed to Japanese folklore via the images of the red-faced oni 👹, a type of goblin that resides in mountains or caves, and the long-nosed tengu 👺, a bird-like human deity. These supernatural beings belong to overlapping groups called kami (imperfectly translated as deity or spirit) and yokai (meaning “strange apparitions”). 

Japanese folklore derives from regional oral traditions told by the Indigenous peoples of Japan, such as the Emishi of Tohoku, which blended with Shinto and Buddhist religious concepts, as well as imported folk tales from around the world. Over time these local stories evolved into the modern versions seen today, becoming part of everything from Japanese religious rituals, fine art, video games, and of course, emoji.

How Tohoku’s history fed Japan’s folklore

The tales from Tohoku aren’t pure fantasy; many are shaped by the region’s difficult history of natural disasters, famines, and geographic isolation.

The city of Tono in Iwate prefecture is a particularly important source of this mythology. Surrounded by mountains, Tono is nestled in an isolated valley. That seclusion allowed many of Japan’s ancient folklore to survive to modern times.

It was there that Kunio Yanagita compiled the recollections of a local man named Kizen Sasaki to create the definitive collection of rural folk tales called Tales of Tono published in 1910. 

Yanagita and Sasaki’s collection reified local versions of yokai, ushering local culture into the national and international consciousness.

“Kami and yokai aren’t like Western concepts of gods, creators of the universe or separate from our world. They are fully of the natural world,” says Toshiaki Ishikura, professor of mythology and art anthropology at Akita Art University. 

Almost any mysterious phenomena in Japanese folklore, including many kami, can be considered yokai.  

“Yokai are simply mythical creatures from Japanese folklore. But they act as a lens to view different aspects of Japanese beliefs, society, and history,” explains Hiroko Yoda, writer and co-author of the book Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide.

Kappa: amphibious spirits with a sinister background

One of the most popular yokai from Japanese folklore is the kappa, a green, amphibious, child-like creature with a yellow beak for a mouth and a turtle shell on its back.

Originally, kappa gave a monstrous tale to the very real danger of drowning in rivers if one wasn’t careful. That image has evolved over time to become cuter and more commercialized. Pokémon characters Golduck and Lotad as well as Gamakichi of Naruto are animated versions of these formerly frightening yokai. But the cute, green kappa of today emerged relatively recently, evolving from a hairy, otter-like creature in the Edo period (1603–1868).

The modern image of the kappa emerged from Japanese print culture and the designs of ukiyo-e (woodblock printing) of the Meiji era (1868-1912), explains Ishikura. “Printers and artists in cities reimagined the yokai characters of the rural people who had invented them. Those mass produced images soon came to replace local versions.”

Depictions of kappa behavior are varied and contradictory. They are playful and mischievous, vindictive and murderous, physically strong and super-intelligent, but easily fooled—often in the same story. They accept gifts of cucumbers (their favorite food) and sometimes drown those who refuse.

Their superpowers are countered by their Achilles’ heel, a pool of water in the top of their head which, if spilled, takes away their power. Oddly, kappa are sticklers for decorum and will bow to anyone who bows to them first, which causes the water to spill and offers a chance for humans to escape.

Ishikura says the darker aspects of kappa tales in Tohoku may be an echo of the region’s tragic history of famines and the high rates of infant mortality caused by a harsh climate, natural disasters (including volcanic eruptions) and tax system that was paid in rice.

“In the Tohoku region, infanticide was sometimes used as a form of birth control due to repeated famines. The bodies of unwanted children were often disposed of in rivers or lakes,” says Prof. Ishikura. “Many people in Tono believe that tragic history is one of the origins of stories of the kappa.”

In fact, the kappa of Tono specifically are said to be red in color rather than green, which may allude to the Japanese word for infant, akachan, which derives from aka, the word for red.

Zashiki-warashi: spirit children

Another Tohoku yokai made famous by the Tono Monogatari are the zashiki-warashi, spirits who haunt the tatami rooms of households, counterintuitively bringing fortune to the families they visit and taking that luck away with them when they leave—causing families to fall on hard times. 

Zashiki-warashi tales speak to the ever-changing fortunes of Tono households, subject to long winters, famines, malnutrition, and natural disasters, which Ishikura says led to a culture of taking in yoshi, orphaned or abandoned children. 

Zashiki-warashi are often seen playing in open rooms, Ishikura says—and anyone who witnesses it shouldn’t interfere. 

Sasaki postulated that zashiki-warashi were the spirits of the children who were killed and buried in the home, again raising the specter of wide-spread infanticide of the Tohoku region in the past. Other tales allude to the possibility that zashiki-warashi are actually shapeshifting kappa who have entered homes to play pranks.   

Namahage: deities of filial responsibility 

Japanese folklore is not mere fiction confined to the page—it is a part of living history. One that can be seen in the namahage traditions of Oga Peninsula in Akita prefecture. There men dress as ogre-like costumes and stoke the fires of belief in the ancient kami so that their tradition may be carried on. 

Namahage are kami of time, raihō-shin, wild red-face demons who noisily descend upon villages from afar scaring children, admonishing lazy people and ensuring a good harvest or new year. 

The most famous of these festivals is the Sedo Namahage Festival in the Oga Peninsula of Akita where namahage descend from the mountains to mark the 15th day of the lunar new year. to scare naughty children. Similar to the krampus in German-speaking alpine culture, namahage are outsiders who come to punish those who aren’t doing their fair share or are causing trouble. 

The name namahage is thought to derive from namomi, heat blisters that form from lazily sitting too long in front of the hearth, which namahage come to cut off with their knives before consuming them. 

In communities where working together and rule following could be a matter of life or death come wintertime, Ishikura says the namahage ritual also allows for a raucous release of tension during the middle of the season. 

Despite their oni-like appearance, namahage retain their status as kami rather than yokai. “They are respected as kami by the children they frighten and by the families who provide them with sake, rice cakes, and other treats. Namahage remain kami because they are still revered.”