Yokai
2 stories
Why are so many Japanese stories full of spirits, from Spirited Away to Pokémon?
A river spirit is a bathhouse customer. A Pokémon is a ghost in a cup of tea. Behind the strange cast of Japanese stories is an old habit of seeing something living in places and things.
Kami, yokai, oni: how does Japan tell a god from a monster?
In Spirited Away a river spirit arrives looking like a monster and leaves as a god. Japan's gods, yokai and demons are not three species.