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CONTENTS
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100 Monsters Cast & Crew 5
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Spook Warfare Cast & Crew 7
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Along with Ghosts Cast & Crew 9

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The Great Yokai War Cast & Crew 11
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A Diverse Trilogy of Terror: Daiei’s Classic Yokai Films

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Along with Ghosts: Visiting the Yokai Monsters

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The Tales of Shigeru Mizuki

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by Jolyon Yates 29
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The Great Yokai War Press Notes

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by Keith Aiken 47
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CAST

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Jun Fujimaki Yasutaro

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Sei Hiraizumi Takichi

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Mikiko Tsubouchi Osen

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Shinichi Rookie Shinkichi

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Takashi Kanda Reimon Tajimaya

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妖怪百物語 / Yōkai hyaku monogatari / One Hundred Spook Stories Ryūtarō Gomi Hotta-Buzennokami

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Yoshio Yoshida Jūsuke

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Original release date: 20 March 1968
Kōichi Mizuhara Tōbei
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Jun Hamamura Gohei
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Saburō Date First Ronin

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Shōsaku Sugiyama Bannai Ibaragi

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Ichirō Yamamoto Second Ronin

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Ikuko Mōri Ronin’s Wife

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Teruko Ōmi Otora
Keiko Koyanagi Ôkubi

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Kazue Tamaoki Village Headman
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Shinobu Araki Old Priest

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Shōzō Nanbu Old Town Counselor
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Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Written by Tetsurō Yoshida
Produced by Eiji Nishizawa
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Photography by Yasukazu Takemura, Shōzō Tanaka
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Special Effects Photography by Yoshiyuki Kuroda

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Edited by Kanji Suganuma
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Music by Chūmei Watanabe

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Lighting by Sadakazu Itō, Hiroshi Mima
Sound Effects by Yō Kurashima

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Sound Effects Engineer Eiichi Kusumoto
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Art Directors Yoshinobu Nishioka, Shigeru Katō
Assistant Director Akikazu Ōta
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CAST

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EO Akane Kawasaki Chie

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Yoshihiko Aoyama Shinhachiro Mayama
Osamu Ōkawa Iori Ōdate

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Asao Uchida Dainichibo

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妖怪大戦争 / Yōkai daisensō / The Great Yokai War Takashi Kanda Hyōgo Isobe

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Original release date: 14 December 1968 Hanji Wakai Gate Guard
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Kenji Wakai Gate Guard
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Hinode Nishikawa Lower Officer

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Tokio Oki Yasuzo
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Gen Kuroki River Monster

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Ikuko Mōri Long-Necked Monster

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Kisao Tobita Kappa’s voice

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Hiromi Inoue Shinobu

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Chikara Hashimoto Daimon
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Mutsuhiro Tomura Narrator
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Written by Tetsurō Yoshida
Produced by Akihiko Murai
Planning by Yamato Yashiro
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Edited by Toshio Taniguchi
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Music by Sei Ikeno

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Special Composition Sadanori Tanaka
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Lighting by Hiroshi Mima

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Sound Effects by Yō Kurashima
Sound Effects Engineer Eiichi Kusumoto

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Sound Recording by Tsuchitarō Hayashi
Art Directors Seiichi Ōta, Shigeru Kato
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Masami Burukido Miyo

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Kōjirō Hongō Hyakasuro

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東海道お化け道中 / Tōkaidō obake dōchū / Rokkō Toura Saikichi

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Journey with Ghosts Along Tokaido Road Mutsuhiro Toura Sakiichi
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Original release date: 14 December 1968 Yoshindo Yamaji Higaruma
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Bokuzen Hidari Jinbei

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Saburō Date Ushimatsu
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Ryūtarō Gomi Gonkurō Tawara

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Kazue Tamaki Nibei

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Kōichi Uenoyama Gorokichi

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Ichirō Yamamoto Monta

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Shinjirō Akatsuki Chōsuke
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Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Yoshiyuki Kuroda
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Produced by Hiroshi Ozawa
Planning by Yamato Yashiro
Photography by Hiroshi Imai
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Music by Hiroaki Watanabe
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Lighting by Toshiji Kurokawa

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Sound Effects by Yō Kurashima
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Sound Effects Engineer Eiichi Kusumoto

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Sound Recording by Yukio Kaihara
Art Director Mitsuaki Tsuji

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Assistant Director Toshiaki Kunihara
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CAST

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Ryūnosuke Kamiki Tadashi Ino

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妖怪大戦争 / Yōkai daisensō Hiroyuki Miyasako Sata

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Masaomi Kondō Shojo

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Sadao Abe Kawatarō
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Mai Takahashi Kawahime
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Chiaki Kuriyama Agi

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Takahashi Okamura Azukiarai

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Naoto Takenaka Aburasumashi

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Kiyoshirō Imawano Nurarihyon

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Bunta Sugawara Shuntaro Ino
Etsushi Toyokawa Yasunori Kato

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Directed by Takashi Miike
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Producer Fumio Inoue, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa

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Photography by Hideo Yamamoto
Edited by Yasushi Shimamura
Production Design by Takashi Sasaki
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Sound Effects Kenji Shibasaki
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Sound Mixer Jun Nakamura

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CGI Director Kaori Otagaki
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CGI Producer Misako Saka

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Lighting Director Tadahiro Kimura

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A DIVERSE TRILOGY OF

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TERROR: DAIEI’S CLASSIC

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by Stuart Galbraith IV

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What’s in a name? To English-speaking ears, yōkai, yūrei, obake, and oni all appear

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synonymous with “Japanese ghost,” but there are subtle differences in their meaning,
just as kaidan eiga (“ghost story”) has, for Japanese audiences, a different connotation
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(suggestive of Edo period folk tales) than kowai hanashi (“frightening story”) and horaa
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(modern horror films like Ring [1998] and Ju-On [2002]).

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Yōkai, on the other hand, are not spirits in the usual western-world sense, but earth-

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bound monsters with supernatural abilities seen throughout the Japan countryside, more
akin to goblins or nymphs of myriad variety, from playfully mischievous to vengeful and

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malevolent. Yōkai are derived from Japanese concepts of animism and religions like

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Shinto that believe god-like spirits reside not just in animals but in all things, from trees
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and rocks to plants and buildings... and even paper umbrellas.
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while obake is a subset of yōkai, those preternatural creatures capable of shapeshifting
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Daiei-Kyoto Studios’ Yokai Monsters series – 100 Monsters (1968), Spook Warfare (also
1968), and Along with Ghosts (1969) – was specifically inspired by a mid-60s “yōkai
boom” in Japan following the publication of manga created by Shigeru Mizuki and, to a
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A noted historian as well as manga creator, Mizuki (1922-2015) debuted in the latter category
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in 1957, and in 1960 he adapted a kamishibai (a kind of street theater storytelling using
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illustrated boards) called Kitaro of the Graveyard, a manga series that eventually evolved

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into GeGeGe no Kitaro in 1967, when it was first adapted as a television anime. (Sponsors
insisted on the name change, feeling “graveyard” in the title would frighten away viewers.)

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In response to all this renewed interest, Daiei reissued Kenji Misumi’s 1959 film Yotsuya
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Story of Kakui ) in July 1967 to good box-office, but Daiei’s eye on the growing “yōkai
boom” really peaked with the runaway success of the TV version of GeGeGe no Kitaro,
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the Toei Animation adaptation that aired on Fuji-TV beginning on January 3rd 1968. A all been in black-and-white and 1.37:1 standard frame, while Daiei’s series would be in

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tremendous hit, the series was subsequently revived no less than six times (most recently blazing color and anamorphic DaieiScope, ingeniously utilized in all three movies.

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during 2018-20, again to socko ratings), racking up hundreds of episodes and prolific

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Writing the screenplays for all these Yokai films was Tetsurō Yoshida. His 45-feature career

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merchandising, including a popular line of guidebooks identifying the myriad monsters.
based almost exclusively at Daiei-Kyoto, Yoshida’s best-known credit is Zatoichi Meets

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Like the TV show, Daiei’s market for its yōkai films was, primarily, children. The first, Yojimbo (Zatōichi to yōjinbō, 1970), the movie pitting the blind swordsman played by Shintarō
100 Monsters, was released as one half of a double bill with director Noriaki Yuasa’s Katsu against a variation of Toshirō Mifune’s yōjinbō character. However, at Daiei-Kyoto,

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Gamera vs. Viras on March 20th 1968, timed for the spring break vacation, the Japanese Yoshida was more the go-to guy for the studio’s occasional forays into juvenile chanbara

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school year traditionally commencing in early April. This “Special Effects Double Feature,” fantasy. In the 1950s, he wrote scripts for the company’s Suzunosuke Akado series starring

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coupling the artistry of Daiei-Tokyo and Daiei-Kyoto, was unmatched even by rival Toho Masaji Umeiwa as the eponymous kendo master, Yoshida penning seven short features each

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and it performed exceptionally well at the box office, at a time when Daiei had few hits. running about an hour. In 1966 he wrote all three Daimajin scripts. As with that series, the
Daiei employees noted the strong positive reaction to both movies by this core audience of monsters in the first Yokai Monsters picture are mostly confined to the last-third of the story,
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children, prompting studio executives to request Yuasa ramp up production of the Gamera possibly a conscious attempt by the struggling Daiei to keep costs down.
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movies to three per year, a practical impossibility, and so work instead began right away

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on 100 Monsters’ follow-up, Spook Warfare. Yuasa, meanwhile, did helm that entry’s co- Also from the Daimajin series, director Kimiyoshi Yasuda and special effects director

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feature, the low-budget but wildly atmospheric The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch, Yoshiyuki Kuroda between them helmed the entire Yokai Monsters trilogy, Yasuda directing

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a black-and-white haunted house mystery with supernatural elements. That double-bill the first one with Kuroda handling the special effects, Kuroda directing the middle film
solo, while on the third they are jointly credited as directors. Whereas Noriaki Yuasa was

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premiered on December 14th 1968, timed for the New Year holiday. The final entry, Along

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with Ghosts, was released the following March 21st, again coinciding with the spring pretty much a one-man band on the Gamera films, directing both the live-action first

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unit as well as the special effects scenes, the Yasuda-Kuroda combo was closer in spirit

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break holiday, this time on a double-bill with Yuasa’s Gamera vs. Guiron.
to the Toho collaborations of director Ishirō Honda and effects master Eiji Tsuburaya on
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As with the company’s earlier Daimajin trilogy of 1966, the films play to the Daiei’s brand their kaiju eiga. Yasuda, famous for his meticulous pre-production planning in the form of

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identity, its métier of churning out unpretentious chanbara and jidai-geki. With the studio detailed, hand-drawn storyboards, and Kuroda, a perfectionist the equal of Tsuburaya in

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already in dire financial straits by this point, the series could rely on pre-existing and terms of ingenuity and vivid imagery, remain criminally underrated in the fantasy film field.
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interchangeable backlot and soundstage sets, props, wigs, contract players, and so on.
Moreover, they were movies that didn’t rely on a big-name (read: expensive) top-tier star Uniquely diverse in his talents, Yoshiyuki Kuroda (1928-2015) had been a child actor for

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like Shintarō Katsu or Raizō Ichikawa. Indeed, most of their casts and crews were cobbled Shinko Kinema Studio in the 30s, a mathematics teacher at a girls’ school as a young man, a
from Daiei-exclusive talent that had previously worked on the Daimajin films. cinema production teacher as an old man and, in between, freely alternated at Daiei between
directing the company’s special effects unit in Kyoto, working as an assistant to other Daiei
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The screenplay for 100 Monsters was influenced by a folk tale of the same name popularized directors, and directing standard live-action features on his own. For instance, the same
by rakugo hanashika (“storyteller”) Shōzō Hayashiya (1781-1842), said to have been the year Kuroda worked as the chief assistant special effects director on Buddha (Shaka, Kenji
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first to popularize such stories in rakugo form. (Shōzō Hayashiya IX, b. 1962, carries on Misumi, 1961), Daiei’s huge production shot in Super Technirama 70, he also debuted as

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the tradition, his work branching out into TV dramas and anime voice characterizations.) full director on the modest period melodrama The Trip Has Sex Appeal (Tabi wa o iroke).
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Another influence on the series was Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Honjo nanafushigi, 1937), a But even before that film, Kuroda had been dabbling in the field of special effects, often
production of Shinko Kinema, one of the companies absorbed into Daiei during World War in association with childhood friend Fujio Morita. Together they worked in this capacity

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II. Featuring many of the same yōkai that would later appear in 100 Monsters, this pre- on the Japanese-American co-production Flight from Ashiya (1964), starring Yul Brynner
war film was directed by Rokuhei Susukita and starred Sumiko Suzuki and Omenosuke and Richard Widmark, producing blue-screen matting effects. At first, the American team
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VIIchikawa. Shintoho remade it in 1957 as Ghost Stories of a Wanderer at Honjo (Kaidan assumed Kuroda and Morita were shirking, they were using so little film stock, only later
Honjo nanafushigi ), a 55-minute black-and-white second feature directed by Gorō realizing they were producing excellent effects, but in the Japanese fashion of wasting
Kadono. Those productions (as well as the first TV version of GeGeGe no Kitaro) had little film.
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Kuroda parlayed his experience on that film to convince Daiei to invest around $28,000 to Jun Fujimaki and Miwa Takada, stars of the original Daimajin, were the nominal leads. From

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purchase blue-screen equipment for use on Daimajin. The outstanding results, arguably a theatrical family, Fujimaki (b. 1936) had been part of the famed Haiyu-za Theater company

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superior even to Eiji Tsuburaya’s Oxberry matte printing work at rival Toho, combined with prior to signing with Daiei, joining its 11th New Face Program. Debuting onscreen in 1956,

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Kuroda’s daring in-camera multiple exposure work and flawless blending of miniature and
full-scale effects, won him the Japanese Film Press Gold Award in 1967, for his work on
Fujimaki was part of its stable of dashing if utility leading men, balancing movie roles with TV
work, famously starring on the TBS network’s Tokyo Guard Man (Guardman: Tokyo yôjimbô), a

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all three Daimajin films. After Daiei’s collapse, Kuroda continued working in a variety of six-year, 350-episode series that spawned several movie spin-offs. In his spare time Fujimaki,
fields, directing the last of the Lone Wolf & Cub films, White Heaven in Hell (Kozure ōkami: famous for his physical dexterity, sometimes doubled other actors in sword fighting scenes.

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Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigorō, 1974), and episodes of Shintarō Katsu’s Zatoichi TV show, while

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also helming episodes (and contributing to the special effects) of programs like Mirrorman At 21, Miwa Takada (b. 1947) likewise came from a family of actors (her father was

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and Jumborg Ace for Tsuburaya Productions. In his last years he was a lecturer and close Kokichi Takada, star of Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums [Zangiku

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confidant to a younger generation of filmmakers at Kyoto Technoscience Center. monogatari ] in 1939) and was already a movie veteran herself, 100 Monsters being her
31st and penultimate film for Daiei. She joined the company when she was just fifteen
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Kimiyoshi Yasuda, meanwhile, was a typical Daiei journeyman, though not at all in the years old, making an auspicious debut opposite established star Kazuo Hasegawa in Kenji
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disparaging sense of the word. Virtually all Japanese directors of Yasuda’s generation reliably Mizumi’s Demon of Aoba Castle (Aoba-jō no oni, 1962). Headlining period and modern

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brought a kinetic energy and painterly visual sensibility to early post-war Japanese cinema, features, in both types of films she epitomized the beautiful, proper, and dutiful daughter.

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at that time had no peers. Yasuda (1911-1983) joined Nikkatsu Studios in Kyoto at the age on TV dramas, becoming a fixture of that medium throughout the 1970s. However, Takada

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of nineteen, working as an assistant to such pre-war masters as Sadao Yamanaka, Hiroshi shattered her squeaky-clean image and then some in 1982, headlining an ambitious

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Inagaki, and Santaro Marune. When Nikkatsu’s studio absorbed into Daiei during the war, Nikkatsu Roman Porno called Lady Karuizawa (Karuizawa fujin). Like Shintarō Katsu and

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Yasuda went along for the ride, making his directorial debut in 1944 with Horse of 770,000 many other Daiei stars, Takada also enjoyed a thriving recording career, mostly for the
Stones (O-uma ha nanajūnanaman-goku). Though he spent most of his long career at Daiei- Columbia label from 1964 to 1969, including what became her signature hit, “Pray for My
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Kyoto, Yasuda concurrently worked in television, and his services were occasionally loaned Love to the Stars,” a duet she sang with Mitsuo Kaji.

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out to other companies like Shintoho and Takarazuka. He peaked during the 1960s, directing

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six of the best Zatoichi films (and, later, episodes of the TV series), Sleepy Eyes of Death A highlight of 100 Monsters, quite unlike anything in all of western cinema and invariably
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(Nemuri Kyōshirō) entries, and The Hoodlum Priest (Gokuaku bōzu, 1967), among others. leaving viewers nonplussed, is dim-witted Shinkichi’s playful encounters with the kasa-
obake, or “umbrella ghost.” With its single eye, drooly red tongue and single, sandaled

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He directed Shintarō Katsu more than any other Daiei star, and favored Akira Ifukube foot, it’s brought to life here by an impressively articulated marionette, initially introduced
to write his films’ scores. Around the Daiei-Kyoto lot, Yasuda had a reputation not via cartoon animation. What sells the strange beastie is the actor playing his human
unlike Alfred Hitchcock, as a director meticulously prepared, having worked out every playmate, a lively performance by self-taught comedian Rookie Shinichi (1935-1980).
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scene well in advance of production, drawing detailed storyboards that he expected his After winning a radio manzai competition with his brother, “Let’s Go” Masako, Rookie
cinematographers and art directors to replicate precisely on film. soon came to be regarded as one of Japan’s top comedians. However, soon after the
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release of 100 Monsters, his life crumbled under a series of scandals – arrested in October

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100 Monsters follows the tropes of myriad Daiei chanbara, as well as the Daimajin
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1968 on suspicion of blackmail and assault, bankruptcies, chronic alcoholism, a wife
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tenement house to increase his wealth and power, local peasants be damned. Unlike the
Daimajin trilogy, the script peppers yōkai throughout the narrative, though it saves the And while Ryūtarō Gomi plays the main bad guy, stealing every scene he’s in is the actor

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onslaught of varied critters – maybe not quite one hundred but certainly scads – for the playing his ruddy-faced enforcer-assassin, Yoshio Yoshida (1911-1986). Typecast in such
big climax. When all the colorful creatures at last make their appearance, the effect on roles, Yoshida was a former junior high art instructor who, first at Toei in the 1950s and
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VI1968 movie audiences had to have been akin to western audiences seeing the Mos Eisley at Daiei in the 60s, became a chanbara villain archetype, yet surprisingly popular with
cantina sequence in Star Wars in the summer of 1977: so many exotic creatures all at once children, who flooded him with fan mail. Indeed, by the 1970s Yoshida was practically
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that it becomes a uniquely delirious sensory overload. beloved, becoming a semi-regular in Yoji Yamada’s Tora-san (Otoko wa tsurai yo) film

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series, typically spoofing his tough-talking bad guy in those films’ pre-titles dream studio’s last features, Kumo no Yuna (1971). When Daiei went bankrupt, Shochiku quickly

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sequences, and in the main stories appearing as the elderly leader of the downtrodden snapped up her services but Kawasaki left after just one year, moving instead to TV work,

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traveling acting troupe Tora-san occasionally encounters. where she’s been employed steadily ever since.

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Finally, the film affords western viewers the somewhat rare opportunity to see and hear In the wake of the Rookie Shinichi scandal, for Spook Warfare’s comedy relief the

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English-subtitled rakugo storytelling courtesy of Kyokai master Hikoroku Hayashiya (1895- filmmakers brought in a manzai (double act) team, “Wakai Hanji • Kenji” (Hanji &
1982), whose very name Beat Takeshi regarded as “synonymous with the crispy old man’s Kenji Wakai), brothers affectionately known as Han-chan and Ken-chan. Born into a

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storyteller.” Hayashiya’s methodical, carefully enunciated style was often imitated. showbusiness family (older brother Hanji literally so, in a Kyoto dressing room), the act

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was popular but, like hapless Rookie, short-lived, with Hanji dying of cancer at just 42,

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Spook Warfare, the filmmakers admirably moved in a radically different direction. Instead

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of teasing audiences with a handful of eerie subplots until a showy climax, Spook Warfare Visually quite stunning with its especially impressive opening scenes, an orgy of vividly
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is a yōkai movie positively teeming with spooky spirits from beginning to end. And... they realized special effects, Spook Warfare is notable for its peculiar air of nationalistic pride,
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talk! Indeed, the garrulousness of these spooks likely influenced the direction of rival played out when the traditional yōkai square off against a – gasp! – foreigner, Daimon,

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Toho’s Godzilla film series: for their next entry, Godzilla’s Revenge (Gojira-Minira-Gabara: from ancient Babylonia, no less. Not remotely Babylonian in appearance – Daimon lacks

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Ōru kaijū daishingeki, 1969 aka All Monsters Attack), Toho likewise gave voice to Minira, the singularly rectangular-shaped, extravagantly curled beard of such people, as depicted

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the Son of Godzilla (already a pretty yōkai-like creature to begin with), much like the in myriad statuary – it’s nevertheless a nightmarish mishmash of features: vampire-like
chatterbox spirits seen here. teeth, reptilian scales and feet, with feather highlights. Played by Riki Hashimoto, the pro

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baseball player-turned-actor who had memorably portrayed Daimajin, Daimon is rather
Indeed, it’s one of the yōkai, a kappa, a lime-green amphibious water imp, that becomes

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Majin-like himself, with similarly glowering, bloodshot and unblinking eyes, the actor

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Spook Warfare’s de facto protagonist, rather than any of the mostly ineffectual human enthusiastically cast once again by director Kuroda.
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characters. Despite being such a major part of the story, the actors playing him largely

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went unacknowledged, but it’s known that “big room” Daiei chanbara player Gen Kuroki The film’s us-versus-them storyline has been read as nationalistic, but it seems less

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actually wore the uncomfortable-looking kappa costume, while Kisao Tobita provided his concerned about the “foreign threat” and more a validation of Japanese traditions. Indeed,
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cartoony voice. Tobita, a former child actor from the late silent era (including a role as
the boy with typhoid in Akira Kurosawa’s A Quiet Duel [Shizukanaru kettō, 1949]), was
Daiei’s approach to selling their movies abroad, both on the festival circuit and in wider
sales distribution, was anchored in this often-misguided notion of oriental exoticism,

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active from at least 1930 until 1982, most of it spent as a Daiei-exclusive actor, though going back to the early days of Rashomon (1950), Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953) and
surprisingly he was not active in the field of anime voice-over work. Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953), two of these featuring supernatural elements.
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The human actors hardly matter here, doubtlessly a disappointment for top-billed For Along with Ghosts, once again the approach radically shifts. Gone are the garrulous
Yoshihiko Aoyama (also from Daimajin) and, making her screen debut, Akane Kawasaki. ghosts with a new set of yōkai unexpectedly getting less screen time than ever and almost
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Aoyama (b. 1943), the son of classical Japanese dancer Juraku Hanayagi II, started out incidental to the plot. This outing revolves around a little girl, Miyo, on the run from the
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acting in television but almost concurrently got into films, debuting with You’re Only 17 Higuruma Gang while searching for the father that abandoned her, a ramblin’ and gamblin’
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Years Old Once (Jū nana-sai wa ichidodake, 1964) in the starring role. Typecast as a lost soul named Touhachi, believed to be hiding out in Yui, near the base of Mt. Fuji.

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juvenile lead, he appeared in around two dozen Daiei features, later working in television,
but he found the grind unrewarding, and in later years taught acting at Meiji-za Academy. Offsetting its fewer yōkai set pieces is a more story-driven (and more coherent) narrative,

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albeit an amalgam of genre conventions: adept swordsman hero (Kōjirō Hongō, sporting an
The daughter of cameraman Shintarō Kawasaki, Akane Kawasaki (b. 1948) was a student impressively shaggy topknot wig), mysterious yōjinbō assassin (Ryūtarō Gomi), a life-or-
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VIof the traditional arts in Japan (dance from the age of six, the shamisen, etc.) and snapped death roll-of-the-dice gambling scene (very effectively played here), a plot twist involving
up by Daiei when she graduated from high school. She did the usual ingenue fare as Daiei one of the main characters. And, inevitably, a manzai act brought in for comedy relief. In this
began collapsing around her, but then scandalously appeared semi-nude in one of the case it’s the combo of towering Yonosuke Shimada (1915-1985) and diminutive Kitayo Ima
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(1926-2011), lending aid to runaway Miyo, as they pioneer the manzai subgenre of bickering

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married couples. Also of note is the spaghetti Western-influenced musical score of Chūmei

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Watanabe (b. 1925), a prolific composer whose credits include several “Starman” films,

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Nobuo Nakagawa’s notorious Jigoku (1960), Band of Assassins (Shinobi no mono) and
Sleepy Eyes of Death entries, and innumerable Toei-produced superhero TV shows.

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The nominal star of Along with Ghosts was hard-working Kōjirō Hongō (1938-2013) who,

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like Fujimaki, functioned as a leading player at Daiei in the company’s program pictures,

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a name actor but not quite in the scintillating media star league of a Raizō Ichikawa or

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Shintarō Katsu. Born to yet another theatrical family, the son of actor Sōjirō Hongō and

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husband of Takarazuka actress Miyako Koshiro, Kōjirō was studying English literature at
Rikkyo University when, as a member of the judo club, he was virtually drafted into Daiei as
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an heir apparent to earlier stars of such fighting films as Susumu Fujita and Kenji Sugawara.
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Hongō, who never watched Japanese movies, found the whole experience bewildering at

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first, but after debuting in 1959’s The Sun Rises to Kodokan (Kōdōkan ni yō wa noboru,

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Katsuhiko Tasaka), studio head Masaichi Nagata decreed: “Make that man a star!”

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And so Hongō was indeed Hot Stuff for his first several years with the company, starring

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as Siddhartha in Daiei’s first 70mm release, Buddha (1961), filmed in Super Technirama,

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and prominently featured in their next epic, The Great Wall (Shin no shikōtei, Shigeo

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Tanaka, 1962). But quickly other actors like Katsu and Ichikawa far eclipsed Hongō on the
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popularity charts, and he was reduced to playing second-fiddle to the company’s special

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effects creations in movies like Gamera vs. Barugon (Daikaijū kettō: Gamera tai Barugon,

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Shigeo Tanaka, 1966), Return of Daimajin (Daimajin ikaru, Kenji Misumi, 1966), Along with
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Ghosts, and The Falcon Fighters (Rikugun hayabusa sentōtai, Mitsuo Murayama, 1969),
Hongō becoming Daiei’s equivalent of Toho’s once-youthful star Akira Kubo. Post-Daiei,

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Hongō had better luck playing Inspector Tachibana on the long-running police drama
Special Investigation Forefront (Tokusô saizensen). He returned to the special effects
genre one last time, cameoing in Gamera the Guardian of the Universe (Gamera: Daikaijū
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Kūchū Kessen, Shūsuke Kaneko, 1995), ironically sharing a scene with… Akira Kubo.
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Legendary monster-suit maker Masao Yagi worked on all three films uncredited, via his

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company, EXProduction. Some of the yōkai costumes still survived until the year 2000,
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but their rotted remains made that final journey to the dumpster when Yagi’s company

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was relocated, nearly 30 years after Daiei-Kyoto Studios itself had gone bankrupt and its
stages razed.

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Stuart Galbraith IV is the author of The Emperor and the Wolf and numerous audio
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VIcommentaries, essays, and documentary featurettes, often revolving around Japanese
cinema. He lives in a 211-year-old traditional farmhouse, a minka, in the mountains north
of Kyoto. So far at least, he’s encountered no ghosts there.
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ALONG WITH GHOSTS:

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VISITING THE YOKAI

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by Raffael Coronelli

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A sleek specter blasts through the central Japanese countryside like a non-corporeal

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apparition. It follows an ancient road, well worn by travelers both contemporary and
long-dead, through a land haunted by a storied history of countless real-life struggles
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and supernatural folktales alike. Its trajectory stretches from an ultramodern city to one
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whose character lives on from a different era.

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The Tokaido line Shinkansen is the primary means of travel between the Kanto region

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(home of the greater Tokyo metropolis) and Kansai to the southwest. The world’s longest-
running high speed rail line, it’s become a staple of Japan’s infrastructure over the course

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of more than half a century – carrying travelers along with ghosts of a much older road.

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This very road is in the title of the third film in Daiei Studios’ Yokai Monsters film series,
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produced in the late 1960’s as part of the studio’s wave of combination jidaigeki (period

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drama) / tokusatsu (special effects) productions that also included the three Daimajin

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films (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kenji Misumi, and Kazuo Mori, 1966), and The Snow Woman
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E (Kaidan yukijorō, Tokuzō Tanaka, 1968). While these films can be enjoyed by anyone as
well-crafted pieces of cinema with great special effects and compelling characters, the

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influence of their period settings – time, place, and storytelling traditions – allow for a
more comprehensive understanding of what exactly the films are about.
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VI Much like the film series itself, our journey begins at one end of the Tokaido Road – Tokyo,
before the name “Tokyo” existed. During the eponymous Edo period under the Tokugawa
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Shogunate, the city of Edo grew into a massive city. During the Meiji Restoration of 1968,
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the government renamed the city Tokyo to better suit their vision of a future Japan,
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removed from the Tokugawa’s feudal version of Edo.

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Kimiyoshi Yasuda’s 100 Monsters (1968) contains several stories-within-the-story that

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take place around Japan. The film’s opening segment about a man’s encounter with a
Tsuchikorobi takes place in Gifu prefecture, far from Edo in the Kansai region. Some of
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VI these spoken stories occurring in far-flung places away from the main plot give them more
of a tall tale nature – and indeed, are presented as such until the yōkai begin to show up
in Edo proper.
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The feudal system of the Edo period plays heavily into the film’s plot, following the struggle This folktale and the resulting shrine create an interesting dissonance in belief systems.

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between residents of a nagaya (traditional tenant house) and the landlord who wants to Yōkai are traditionally associated with Shintoism, and more broadly, traditional Japanese

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tear it down to build an okabasho, an Edo period red light district establishment. Okabasho folktales. The temple, however, is Zen Buddhist. Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the

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(basically translating as “side-eye place”) were sanctioned by the shogunate during the
period, especially in Edo’s historic Yoshiwara red light district. It would’ve been realistic
combination of Buddhist temples with Shinto shrines was not a taboo practice. Many
pre-Meiji temples contain Shinto torii gates as a prominent fixture. Similarly, Kappa-dera’s

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for a landlord to be able to build such a lucrative business on whichever of his properties inclusion of the shrine didn’t cause any disharmony in the period in which it was built.
he liked if he had permission. Like in Yasuda’s Daimajin, the common people call upon

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supernatural intervention to combat their feudal persecutor. In Spook Warfare, the yōkai apparitions (starting with the Kappa) wage an all-out war with

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the invading Daimon. At the same time, Buddhist monks at a nearby temple enact several

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The now-defunct Yoshiwara district, the area of which is part of Tokyo’s Taito ward, attempts to perform an exorcism on the evil spirit to be rid of him. These competing

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contained numerous temples and shrines alongside its more illicit establishments. In the attacks from the yōkai and the Buddhist monks form a playful running gag, at one
film, one such shrine is a means for the tenants to call upon the help of the resident yōkai. point leading a Buddhist spell to accidentally trap several of the yōkai and require other
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As the film progresses, the tall tales of faraway spirits begin to move into the reality of the characters to rescue them.
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Edo-set drama, escalating to a special effects creature feature climax.

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Kappa-dera shows this clash of belief systems in a more harmonious way, as the shrine

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The yōkai themselves are not as strange to Japanese culture as they appear in the west, remains a well-loved part of the temple. The surrounding Kappabashi neighborhood

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where such outlandish creatures feel completely alien without the necessary context. sells all manner of Kappa-themed merchandise, which will likely be of interest to Yokai
In Japanese folklore, yōkai are apparitions of various alignments and purposes, often Monsters fans.

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representing aspects of mundane life in a divine form. An anthropomorphic umbrella, a
Before leaving Tokyo, it’s worth mentioning that Daiei ran roughly half of its production

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woman with an extending and constricting neck, and a creature able to display live images

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on its stomach like a television are all yōkai. Several thorough attempts to catalogue and facilities in the city at the time the films were made. While the Yokai films were produced
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categorize them have been undertaken, but the uniting theme is that they’re all folkloric at Daiei’s Kyoto studio and not their Tokyo one, an interesting anecdote has emerged

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creatures that contain an element of the divine. External, non-yōkai entities threatening from someone who worked on a film at Daiei Tokyo at the time. Carl Craig, child star of

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Gamera vs. Viras (Gamera tai uchū kaijū Bairasu, Noriaki Yuasa, 1968), claimed in an
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their order form the basis of the movie series’ villains – a destructive landlord, or an
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invading apparition from a different mythology altogether. audio commentary on Arrow Video’s release of the movie to have glimpsed the production
of “a really weird samurai movie” while he was filming Gamera vs. Viras in Tokyo. The

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A separate mythology is indeed the origin of Daimon, the Babylonian demon who invades production of that film would have lined up exactly with the production of 100 Monsters,
Japan in the second film, Spook Warfare (1968). Upon first landing in Edo, Daimon which was actually shown as a double feature with Viras in Japanese cinemas in 1968. It’s
encounters a singular, memorably heroic yōkai – a Kappa. Kappa are delightful turtle- unclear if Craig was remembering seeing Yokai Monsters filming partially in Tokyo instead
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like humanoid creatures, and the character in the film is a fantastic depiction with a fun of its main production center in Kyoto, or even just production elements being shipped to
costume and lots of personality. However, its presence in Edo and one of the movie’s the other studio. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting point to consider.
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thematic threads share some ideological similarities to a prominent Tokyo attraction

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dating to the Edo period. The series’ third installment, Along With Ghosts (1969) has the benefit of falling into
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a different genre than the other two – a road movie. The film takes place along the

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Sōgen-ji, also called Kappa-dera, is a Buddhist temple built in Edo in the 16th century. aforementioned Tokaido Road, which today can be experienced on the Shinkansen – but
Today, it remains open and operational in Tokyo’s Kappabashi neighborhood. Kappabashi its route travels a middle portion of the road from west to east.

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is likely named after “kappa” raincoats, but the name has lead to a folktale about an
actual Kappa yōkai helping to construct an irrigation system to stop the temple and Along With Ghosts’ action is set entirely within Shizuoka prefecture, just to the west of
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VIsurrounding area from flooding. In honor of this legendarily helpful Kappa, a Kappa shrine Mt. Fuji. Its first recognizable stop is the coastal city of Hamamatsu, still a mid-sized city
was erected inside the temple. today. In the Edo period-set film, it’s hardly the place you’d see if you visited, but that’s
thanks to the elaborate sets built at Daiei’s Kyoto studio.
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Location camerawork shows the massive form of Mt. Fuji looming in the distance, a Regardless, the Yokai Monsters movies were hits in Japan, proving again what the

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specter representing the destination of the protagonists. Mt. Fuji is indeed ever-present Daimajin trilogy did a few years before – that Daiei could produce tokusatsu films in both

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on that stretch of the Tokaido line – you may miss it in the clouds, but on a clear day Tokyo and Kyoto simultaneously and release them to great box office success in rapid

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its majestic, landscape-dominating shape is visible from the train. In the film, it stands
beyond Yui, a town in Shizuoka that today is part of Shizuoka City.
succession, a feat that even Toho was unable to replicate. With Gamera’s rogues’ gallery
terrorizing modern Japan from their series’ production base in Tokyo, the Kyoto studio

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was able to build on its more traditional jidaigeki roots and create a wholly unique set of
A lengthy scene involving yōkai deviates to another mountain, as the characters flee from films that are still utterly unlike anything else in the genre.

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Hamamatsu and into the forest. Immediately, they come upon a “Mt. Yatsuga.” The real

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Yatsugatake mountains lie to the west of Fuji, as in the film, but are much further north Drawing from folklore and their historic settings, the three Showa-era Yokai Monsters

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than as depicted and are not walking distance from Hamamatsu. It’s possible that the films are immersive and transportive experiences as much as creature-filled spectacles.

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filmmakers borrowed this name for a fictional mountain – one on which they could stage They remind us of some of Japan’s most storied traditions, and instill a wondrous sense
an elaborate yōkai haunting scene without having to explain that the real Yastugatake that if you wander a bit off the main road and find yourself at an old shrine, you should
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mountains are not actually haunted. keep your wits about – you might be about to meet some spooks.
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The modern experience of the Tokaido line is obviously very different from walking the Raffael Coronelli is the author of How to Have an Adventure in Northern Japan, Daikaiju

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road on foot like in the film, but there are stretches of the ancient road that are preserved, Yuki, and other books.

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dotting its considerable length. The fact that the entire film takes place in one prefecture
shows just how much longer it would have taken in the Edo period than it now takes to

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blast through on the Shinkansen.

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After our stop in Shizuoka, our journey takes us to the western end of the Tokaido Road –
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the ancient former capital of Japan, Kyoto. This is where the films were actually produced,

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at Daiei’s Kyoto studio. It’s no coincidence that the studio’s jidaigeki films were placed in

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the hands of the Kyoto branch – the preserved traditional architecture of the city clearly
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informs the atmosphere and craftsmanship of the productions.

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Besides the Kadokawa-Daiei studio where filming took place, which you can visit from
the outside, Kyoto has another prominent yōkai attraction – Yokai Street. Somewhat in
contrast with the traditional nature of the city, Yokai Street is a modern invention, but has
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become a popular tourist attraction and a creative activity for the local residents. Original
yōkai are created by shop owners and displayed as statues or even food items. This
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modern continuation of the yōkai tradition shows the true nature of yōkai. While they do
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have their roots in ancient folklore of Japan, they’re also part of the roots of the culture’s
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fascination with inventing strange and fun creatures.

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It’s perhaps unsurprising that the series went unreleased in the west until DVD. They may

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have simply been seen as too culturally esoteric for western moviegoers of the late 60s.
Modern fans of tokusatsu, however, have latched onto the films with a cult following – one
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THE TALES OF

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SHIGERU MIZUKI

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This is a revised version of an article published in Monster! issue 34, February 2019.

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The key figure in the popularity of yōkai in modern Japan is Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015),

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manga artist, scholar, and the Great Yokai Elder seen at the climax of The Great Yokai War.
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Prior to his own fascinating life come centuries of folktales passed down through various

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storytelling means, a rich and sometimes tenuous history that has survived to this day.
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(How delighted Mizuki-san would have been to see his beloved friends capering at the

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opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics of 2021!)

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WHAT IS A YŌKAI?

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The word yōkai is formed from the kanji for “bewitching” and “mysterious.” Yōkai can be a

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broad term for all supernatural beings and monsters, or Japanese creatures in particular.

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Other catch-all terms are kaii genshō (“bizarre phenomenon”), mononoke (“spirit of a
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thing”), bakemono (“changing thing”), and obake (also “changing thing”), reminding us

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of the mutability of the world. They can be malign or friendly, grotesque and/or cute,

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sometimes embody natural threats or punishment for transgressions, and tend to be free
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Since yōkai are creatures of the animist Shinto culture, many of them are non-human
objects, which are referred to as onbake (“grateful spirit,” an object so adored by humans
it comes to life) and tsukumogami (“mourning attachment deity,” an object which acquires
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VI a haunting spirit after a hundred years of use). This belief has been dated to the Muromachi
Period (1336-1573).
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Japan itself has been infused with yōkai for much longer. According to The Kojiki, the
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“Record of Ancient Matters” compiled in the early 8th century by Ō no Yasumaro, Izanagi

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(one of the last of seven generations of primordial deities) ventured into the Yomi-no-kuni
(the Underworld) to see his sister-wife Izanami, with whom he had created the archipelago

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that became Japan. She was so enraged by his seeing her in her corrupted state that
she sicced Yakusa-noikazuchi-no-kami (‘Eight Thunders God’) and Yomotsu-shikome
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VI (‘Underworld Hag’) upon him. Izanagi escaped, declared he was now divorced, and took a
bath. Amaterasu the Sun Goddess sprang from his left eye, Tsukuyomi the Moon from his
right eye, and wild man Susanoo the Tempest God from his nostrils. The water dripping
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from Izanagi soaked into the land so that, with the necessary concentration of the right by Sekien Toriyama (published in 1776), ostensibly a bestiary of local yōkai, although at

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energy, a yōkai might spring forth from anywhere and anything.1 least eighty creatures are of his own invention and fourteen are Chinese. Mizuki himself

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has produced several yōkai guides, such as Yōkaiden (Kodansha, 1985).

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Those which appear to be humans, albeit with unruly hair denoting an abandonment of

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mortal niceties, are closer to the Western idea of vengeful ghosts and are known as yūrei In the 17th century, yōkai appeared in another format, Ōtsu-e (“Ōtsu pictures”), souvenir

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(“otherworldly spirit”). Yūrei can also be referred to as bōrei (“deceased spirit”) and shiryō paintings sold at Otsu, just northeast of Kyoto, to travellers along the Tokaido, the coastal
(“death spirit”). Peak yūrei viewing time is The Hour of the Ox, in the early hours after road from Kyoto to Tokyo immortalised in Hiroshige Utagawa’s prints “The 53 Stations of

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midnight. If a person’s spirit is unable to join their ancestors because of a botched funeral the Tokaido,” which was parodied by Mizuki as “The 53 Stations of the Yokaido.” The route

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or trauma, it becomes a yūrei. As kaidan (“tales of the strange”) became more popular in is the setting for The Ghost of Yotsuya (Tokaidō yotsuya kaidan, Kenji Misumi, 1959) and

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the 17th century, yūrei took on more features distinguishing them from the living, such as the third film in the Yokai Monsters trilogy. Samurai in the 17th century could test their

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being dressed in white (the color of purity as in the world beyond ours), then missing legs mettle by taking part in the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (“100 Strange Tales Gathering”)
in the 18th century, showing their disconnectedness from the spirit of the Earth. Once the wherein, as each tale was told, the narrator extinguished one candle and looked into a
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proper rites have been observed, or vengeance exacted, the yūrei finds peace. mirror. Once the final candle was snuffed out, a spirit was said to manifest in the dark. This
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spooky game soon spread to other classes and can be seen in the first film of the trilogy.

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A lethal spirit can even originate from the living, with or without that person’s knowledge.

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Such is the fury of The Lady Rokujo in the early 11th century story “Genji Monogatari” that The Edo Period (1603-1868) was also the time when karuta (card) games were popular,

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it becomes an ikiryō (“living spirit”) and kills two of Genji’s wives, carrying her grudge even one version being obake karuta where players collected cards illustrated with yōkai and
after the anger has left her. On the other hand, a spirit born of vengeful anger reaching from the winner was the one with the most ghost lore knowledge and the fastest hand. Yōkai

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beyond death is an onryō (“grudge spirit”, as in Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-on franchise of 1998 playing cards, menko, would again appear in the 1960s.

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onwards). The onryō is written of in the historical record Shoku Nihongi completed in 797 AD.

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The first half of the 18th century had seen the increase of theatrical presentations of
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YŌKAI IN ART ghost stories, first as puppet shows then on stage in Osaka and Edo, and by century’s

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end they had become a mainstay of Kabuki and Noh drama, which had arisen in the 14th

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Perhaps the earliest illustration of yōkai is the Gaki Zoshi (“Hungry Spirit Scroll”) in which century. Early yōkai films were kabuki scenes, such as two 1899 shorts of the “Two
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greedy humans who have been reincarnated as grotesque creatures (condemned to
feeding on corpses, excrement, and spilled water) are saved by the actions of Buddhist
Virgins at Dojo Temple” dance from the Wake Futatsu Ninin Dōjōji play first performed in
1835. The oft filmed yūrei story by Tsuruya Nanboku IV, “Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan,” was

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priests. The scrolls date from the 12th century, a time of other instructional art such first staged in 1825 at the Nakamura Theatre in Tokyo, and first filmed in 1910 as Oiwa
as Jigoku Zoshi (“Hell Scrolls”), Jigokuhen (“Hell Pictures”), and Yamai Zoshi (“Disease Inari (“Oiwa’s Shrine,” Oiwa being the victim and post-mortem persecutor of the villain).
Scrolls”). Pictures of Heaven and Hell were displayed at a local temple, Shofukuji, near Kaidan Botan-dōrō, also first filmed in 1910, was adapted for the stage in 1892. Patrick
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Shigeru Mizuki’s hometown, and were apparently of great interest to him as a child. Lafcadio Hearn (see below) recorded the story as “A Passional Karma” in his book In
Ghostly Japan (1899).
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Even more directly influential on Mizuki was the Hyakki Yako (“100 Spirit Night Parade”),
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a procession of yōkai led by a nurarihyon, a slippery fellow dressed in Buddhist robes and In the latter half of the 18th century, grandmasters of woodblock printing such as Hokusai
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sporting a distended, gourd-shaped head.2 The parade was depicted in scrolls as far back Katsushika (1760-1849), Ōkyo Maruyama (1733-1795), and Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1797-

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as the 15th century. Famous examples include the Hyakki Yagyō Zu of the 16th century, 1861) created some of the best-known images of yōkai. In 1814, Hokusai used the term
now on display in Kyoto, and the 19th century Hyakki Yagyō by Kyōsai Kawanabe, shown manga, a word formed from the kanji for “unrestrained” and “picture,” to describe his

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in the British Museum. The spectacle also appears in book form in the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō drawings of everyday life, objects, and whimsy, as opposed to proscribed subjects such
as landscapes, warriors, and beautiful women. Manga had been a term for picture books
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In the movie The Three Treasures (Nippon Tanjō, 1959) Susanoo and Yamato Takeru are played by Toshirō
Mifune, Izanami by Shizuko Muramatsu, and Amaterasu by Setsuko Hara.
since the 1770s and eventually became synonymous with comics and cartoons around
1930. Hokusai’s yōkai manga include a few depictions of rokurokubi, people with necks
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In the Yokai Monsters trilogy, the parade is led by another slippery spirit, abura sumashi (“Oil Wringer”),
which, like the kanji of their name suggests, stretch like those of a clay pot being cast.
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the ghost of an oil thief. A nurarihyon is one of Kitaro’s enemies in Mizuki’s manga.

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The 19th century continued the production and refinement of woodblock printing as well as to have around a home, the moral being that you had better take care of it because if it

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the adoption of Western technology following the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854. Magazines leaves, disaster follows. On the centenary of Tono monogatari, a translated edition was

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illustrated by pen drawings and influenced by Britain’s Punch and the USA’s New York World released in the US by Lexington Books, and 29 of the stories were illustrated by Shigeru

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appeared, featuring anthropomorphic animals in cartoons and comic strips. Traditional print
artists included Yoshitoshi Tsukioka (1839-1892), infamous for his astoundingly gory series
Mizuki for a Japanese edition from Shogakukan. Mizuki’s manga adaptation was released
in 2021 by Drawn & Quarterly with translation and an essay by Zack Davisson.

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“28 Famous Murders with Verse,” also known as the Muzan-e (“Cruelty Pictures,” 1866-
8), a major influence on the ero-guro artists to come, although he also created pictures of There were numerous yōkai bestiaries published in the 20th century, including Yōkai gadan

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conventional beauty and two yōkai series, Wakan Hyaku Monogatari (“100 Stories of Japan zenshū (“Complete Discussions of Yōkai,” 1929) by Morihiko Fujisawa, and Nihon yōkai zukan

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& China,” 1865) and Shinkei Sanjuroku Kaisen (“New Forms of 36 Ghosts,” 1889-92). (“Japanese Yōkai Picture-book,” 1972), written by Arifumi Satō with glorious illustrations by

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Gōjin Ishihara. And of course, several books and print series by Shigeru Mizuki.

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In 1890, the Greco-Irish writer Patrick Lafcadio Hearn moved to Japan. Hearn had already
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described Louisiana Voodoo and Some Chinese Ghosts (1887). Interpreted for him by his Kamishibai (“Paper Theatre”) is a street performance where the narrator, the kamishibaiya,

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slides a series of illustrated boards into a miniature wooden proscenium, the butai, which
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wife Setsuko, Hearn’s books such as Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894) and Kwaidan

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(1903) brought Japanese tales and folklore to the West as well as recording them for is mounted on a bicycle and fitted with a satin curtain, and tells the stories as each picture

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is presented. Notes on the story and suggested dialogue are on the back of the boards,

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readers of their home country (the Japanese translation was published after Hearn’s
death in 1905). Four of the Hearns’ transcripts were adapted in the film Kwaidan (1964), and the kamishibaiya is expected to provide sound effects and a variety of voices, much

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and the yuki-onna (“snow woman”) story was again filmed as The Snow Woman (Kaidan like the benshi or katsuben who narrated silent movies in Japan well into the 1930s. The
storyteller would travel a local circuit, announcing his arrival by clapping hiyogoshi sticks.

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yukijorō ) in 1968. (There were yuki-onna films in 1911 [Yuki onna ] and 1935 [Kyōran

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yukijorō ], but these seem to be lost.) Admission was given via the purchase of treats: roasted sweet potatoes or chestnuts,
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rice crackers smeared with plum jam, ice cream, and other sticky sweets. The more you

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It is fortunate that the Hearns helped rescue the yōkai from obscurity because by this bought, the closer you were allowed to the show. The format was generally a funny story or

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point, native Japanese sentiment had turned against such superstitions and rural folk a quiz, followed by a melodrama for girls (shōjo) and an adventure for boys (shōnen) which
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beliefs in the rush to be seen as modern. Enryō Inoue (1858-1919) dedicated himself to
debunking the stories, apparently in order to separate them out from Buddhism and thus
might involve superheroes, ninja, robots, dinosaurs, monsters, and/or yōkai. Dramas were
serials of ten to twenty pictures a day with cliffhangers to be resolved on the next visit.

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legitimise it as the modern state religion. Ironically, in founding the Fushigi Kenkyūkai
(“Paranormal Research Society”) and the Yokai Kenkyūkai (“Yokai Research Society”), During the first kamishibai boom in the Depression years, a 1933 survey reported there
he became known as “Dr. Yokai” and his cataloguing of the stories remains a major were 83 production companies and 1,265 kamishibaiya in Tokyo alone. To feed the demand,
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resource for yōkai scholars. The very use of the term has been credited to his scholarship writers and artists belonged to a bullpen, called a kai (“society”), of up to 200 employees.
(Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Yōkai to iu kotoba ni tsuite, pt2). Dealers (kashimoto) rented the artwork in the hope of making a profit from the candy.
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A few years before Inoue’s death during a lecture tour, another influential yōkai study To play to the crowd, art was produced with heavy India ink line work, layered with
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was published: Kunio Yanagita’s Tono monogatari (“Tales from Tono,” 1910), a record of watercolour and tempera, and protected with coats of clear lacquer and rainproof wax.

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folktales from that town in the northeast of Honshu. Yanagita (1875-1962) was concerned Heroes, often based on screen idols, were rendered quite realistically, with supporting
with including everyday people and their beliefs in history, and his book spread the local characters drawn more stylised, and backgrounds painted as vivid blurs or carefully

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stories of kappa and zashiki-warashi. Kappa (“River Child”) have many regional variations, constructed drawings depending on the needs of the story. Boys could identify both with
but generally look like amphibious apes with a turtle shell, and an indentation in the the heroes, who were often close to their age but able to drive, fly, and deal out death
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VIcranium for holding water without which they cannot survive long on land. They began with swords and guns, and the victims of the mayhem, also often children. At the time,
appearing on screen as early as Hanawa hekonai kappa matsuri in 1917. Zashiki-warashi children had freedom in the afternoons, and as dusk settled, the show might also include
(“Tatami Room Child”) is a ruddy-faced infant who may be a little mischievous but is good evening news for adults.
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A yōkai superhero was one of the most popular characters of the medium. Debuting in cartoonists such as Saseo Ono5. Ero-guro is applied to the fiction of Edogawa Rampo,

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1931, The Golden Bat (Ōgon Batto), scripted by Ichirō Suzuki with art by Takeo Nagamatsu, the pen name of Tarō Hirai based on “Edgar Allan Poe.” Rampo’s stories were adapted in

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was a creepy cross between Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera and Superman. Batto many crime, horror, and pink films to come. Ero-guro can refer to the erotic, decadent,

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gave a chilling laugh as he clobbered arch enemy Nazo and his minions. He leapt to manga
in 1948, movies in 1950 and 19663, records in 1956, and anime in 1967. From 1932, his
corrupt, malformed, and deviant, and combinations thereof.

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second artist was Kōji Kata, who studied the montage technique of Sergei Eisenstein. This Kamishibai had been dragged into court during the International Military Tribunal for the
approach really bore fruit as manga took over from kamishibai in the 1940s, intercutting Far East (1946-8) due to their use in the war effort. A report to the Supreme Commander

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action shots with reaction close-ups and extending certain events over several pages, for the Allied Powers (SCAP) had noted that in the struggle against the good guys, “the

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referred to as “decompression” in the manga-impacted US comics of the 1990s. Like exploits of the evil are too minutely explained, so that children are more deeply impressed

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kamishibai, manga are written to be taken in at speed; according to an editor of Shonen with outrageous or immoral acts rather than the fact that the evil are conquered at last,”

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Magazine, each page is read in an average of 3.75 seconds. but their potential for propaganda was noted too. Five million people a day gathered at the
shows, including adults unable to afford radios or newspapers. In the Kansai and Kanto
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As with the pulp magazines and comics of the United States, kamishibai was attacked. It was regions of central Japan, there were 40 production houses and 50,000 kamishibaiya.
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criticised for its lurid colours, the unhealthy sweets passed between unsanitary hands, the SCAP-approved kamishibai were distributed nationally to explain such concepts as

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crowds which blocked traffic, and its corruption of youth who were being groomed for war. democracy and the need to consume goods. Censorial pressure on the industry prompted

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In 1937, the Japanese Home Ministry declared that “kamishibai and other amusements for the introduction of a self-policing regulation committee in 1951, and creators learned it

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the masses are debasing themselves to the lowest common denominator... social morals was safer to stick with tales of the fantastic, futuristic, and horrific. However, despite

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are not being heeded.” Eight years later, the attacks were more physical; many companies the formation of a kamishibai union in 1953, the artform’s days as a massively popular

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were destroyed by American air raids. However, being a relatively cheap and mobile art entertainment were about to end. The first television broadcasts began that year, and to

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form, kamishibai revived for a brief second boom during the post-war occupation. really twist the knife, not only were they set up in public spaces used by the kamishibaiya,
they were referred to as “denki (electric) kamishibai”. As society recovered, children’s late
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The Civil Information and Education Section (CIE, 1945-1952) under Col. Kermit Dyke afternoons were now occupied by cram schools. Artists jumped ship to manga, although

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succeeded the Information Dissemination Section, itself a successor to the Psychological educational kamishibai continues to this day in schools, and crime and horror shows

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Warfare Branch. Among the CIE’s concerns was “the presentation of unscientific remained popular throughout the fifties from companies like Nakayoshi-kai.
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notions,” directed mostly at film production, but, arguably, a threat to the depiction of
the supernatural in any medium. It also tried to control smut. Pulp magazines known MURA TO MIZUKI

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as kasutori zasshi (“dregs magazines,” the latter word using the kanji for “coarse” and
“record”), sprang up in late 1946, catering to a populace suddenly freed from repression, Shigeru Mizuki was born Shigeru Mura in Osaka on March 8th 1922, the middle son of
opened to American culture and forced into prostitution to survive. An early taboo to three, and the family soon moved to Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture6, on the north coast of
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fall was kissing, a decadent Western expression unseen during Japan’s war years4, but Honshu. As shown in his autobiographical manga NonNonBa (1990), when he was not drawn
kasutori zasshi included “pornography, crimes, grotesquerie, and exposés.” into fights with local boys, he loved to spend his time drawing the natural and supernatural
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worlds, learning folklore from his nanny whose nickname provides the book’s title (real name:

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These magazines died out quickly but by the end of the decade striptease and ero-guro Fusa Kageyama), eating, and building model ships. His first job was at a printer’s, from which
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films were on the rise. Ero-guro (erotic-grotesque) nansensu was a term coined in the he was fired for being too slow, so he enrolled for art studies at the Seika Art School and a

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1920s during the urban vogue for Western fashion and jazz, depicted by contemporary trade school in Osaka, but soon quit both and attended middle school until he was twenty.

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And later artists such as Suehiro Maruo. His 2007 manga of Edogawa Rampo’s “The Strange Tale of
Panorama Island” was published in the US in 2013. The novella had been the basis for Kyôfu kikei ningen:
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There was also a comedic film in 1972, Golden Bat is Coming (Ōgon Batto ga yattekuru, Katsumune Ishida),
Edogawa Rampo zenshû (1969), released on Blu-ray by Arrow Video as Horrors of Malformed Men.
6
Tottori is known for its dunes, the only ones in Japan. They were the location for Suna no Onna (Woman
and a Korean film in 1992, Yong Gu and the Golden Bat (Young-guwa hwanggeum bakjwi, Ki-nam Nam). in the Dunes, 1964) and the climax of Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972). Tottori was the
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With one exception, Onna Wa Itsuno Yo Mo (“Women are in Every World,” 1931). birthplace of Nobuko Otowa, star of Onibaba (1964) and Kuroneko (1968).

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By then it was 1942 and Mura was drafted. In a 2005 interview with Tomoko Otake for The While he was recovering, the unit he had been attached to was sent on its final charge.

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Japan Times, he recalled: “You felt death already when you received the call-up papers.” Soldiers were taught about gyokusai (“jade shard”): “a man would rather be a shattered

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jade than be an intact roof tile” (from a Chinese text, “History of North Qi”). Their glorious

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Mura’s poor showing as a soldier-in-training landed him a non-combat position in the

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bugle corps in Tottori. However, he could not play so he was made to run around the
death was reported, but somehow some of the unit survived. Headquarters ordered them
to commit suicide or charge again. This incident would be recorded in Mizuki’s 1973

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grounds. When he asked to be released from his misery the personnel officer asked him, manga Sōin gyokusai seyo!, published in the US as Onward Toward Our Noble Deaths.
“North or South?” Mura said “South” and found himself a private in the 229th Infantry

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Regiment, 38th Division, on his way to Rabaul, capital of the Territory of New Guinea7. Mura was, like an obake, transformed inside and out. He walked the hills around Toma,

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The ship which took him there, Shinano-Maru, was sunk with all hands on its way back. above Rabaul, sometimes dodging strafing runs from Allied fighters, and came upon a

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Tolai village. They were hardly friendly towards the Japanese, who had killed a chief, and

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New Guinea had become the battleground between Australia, which had administered

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yet an old woman, Ikarian, returned his smile. In an interview with Dr. Hiromatsu Iwamoto
the territory since 1920, and Japan, which invaded in 1942, turning Rabaul into a fortified in 2000, he said: “I think now that she just sympathised with me, because I had only one
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base central to the Southwest Pacific Area. Australia’s supplies could be cut off, perhaps arm.” After several visits, Mura was invited to escape the army and stay in the village,
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leading to its invasion. For many Japanese troops in the early months of occupation, where they grew potatoes for him and invited him to become part of Ikarian’s family.9

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Rabaul was surprisingly delightful, well-supplied with food, drink, and entertainments

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from home, and thousands of women forced into brothels. When the war ended, Mura was ecstatic even though it meant being a prisoner. He told

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an army surgeon about his wish to stay in the village, but was told to go back to Japan
Beyond Rabaul, however, was not so inviting. There was beriberi, dysentery, smallpox, first, both to ask his parents’ permission and to receive proper surgery. When he did so,

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blackwater fever, dengue fever, scarlet fever, and yellow fever. Hookworm, scrub typhus from however, he had a long wait for treatment and a hard scrabble to survive, working as a
chiggers, leishmaniasis from sandflies, and malaria from mosquitoes8. Japanese trenches

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beggar, a fish monger, a black market rice vendor, at a pedicab company, and as a cinema

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filled waist-high with rain, and trench foot was a problem too. New Guinea, the second largest projectionist. His elder brother, an anti-aircraft artillery officer in the Imphal Campaign in
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island after Greenland, was hot, wet, and covered in thick jungle. There were only a few Burma, had been imprisoned for eight years as a Class B war criminal for ordering the

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miles of roads. Soldiers who scaled the central mountain ranges, over 16,000 feet high, were execution of prisoners, which cannot have helped. Mura (“Martial Virtue”) took a less

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threatened with hypothermia. Once shipping lanes from Japan were cut off in late 1943, it got
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militaristic pen name: Mizuki, literally “Water Wood,” is the wedding cake tree (Cornus
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worse. Cannibalism by Japanese soldiers was recorded as early as October 1942. controversa) native to Japan.10

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Mura was often beaten for laziness and talking back to officers, and sent on guard duty MIZUKI IN THE 1950s: “EEK”ING A LIVING
out in the jungle. On one such night, he was late returning to his unit because he had been
watching parrots instead of looking out for enemy ships. His unit was attacked by Australian Mizuki attended Musashino Art University, but dropped out in 1949 and fell in with Golden
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and Melanesian forces and he found himself one of the few survivors fleeing local villagers. Bat’s Kōji Kata, scraping a bit of money in the kamishibai market. At the time, his work was
He escaped them (although they might have only been offering help) and swam back to camp. painted in a quite naturalistic style, and he illustrated domestic dramas for girls’ stories.
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However, once there he was punished for not only losing his rifle, but surviving. Mura was Contemporaries in the business included others who would go on to manga success,
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placed in a kesshitai, a unit determined to die in a suicide charge. At this point he was felled by
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malaria and sent to a hospital in the Zungen area. The hospital was then hit by a US air raid,

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and Mura, up until then a southpaw, had his left arm so badly damaged it had to be amputated
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Mizuki books on his experiences in the area, including his postwar visits: the manga Fifty years with
Topetoro (Topetero to no gojū-nen, 2002); his “Showa” series, Shigeru Mizuki’s Rabaul War Memoir (Shigeru
on site... badly, as it turned out. He recalls watching maggots feeding on his stump.
no Rabaul senki, 1994); and Account of War from Father to Daughter (Mizuki Shigeru no musume ni kataru

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otōsan no senki, 1995). There was also a 2007 NHK TV drama, Kitaro Saw Gyokusai: Shigeru Mizuki’s War
(Kitaro ga mita gyokusai: Mizuki Shigeru no sensō ). Mizuki vowed to return in seven years but did not make
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The 1954 film Farewell Rabaul, directed by Ishirō Honda shortly before Godzilla, blends romance in the
city with anti-war sentiments.
it back until the mid-1960s. A Rabaul road was named after him in 2003.
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“Shigeru” might be “thick growth.” Around 1950 the artist took a loan from his parents to become
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Malaria was even more of a problem for the Allies. Quinine was scarce once the Japanese seized its sole landlord of Mizuki Manor in Mizuki Street, Kobe, and adopted the name. Early work with Kōji Kata was
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source, Java, in 1942. produced here.

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Sanpei Shirato (Ninja bugei-chō [Band of Ninja], 1959) and Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf & Cub, – discovers while working at a blood bank that their plasma supply comes from a pair of

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1970). Mizuki also created books for the kashibon market, rental libraries which had been diseased mummy yōkai, who are expecting a child. As the parents die and decompose,

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around since the Edo Period to provide literature for those who could not afford to buy it. their son emerges. Mizuki (the character) detests yōkai so when he finds the boy crawling

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With the coming of more regular libraries and greater, more affordable print runs, kashibon
went into sharp decline in the early 1960s. Mizuki recalls it being a brutal business for
around in a cemetery he hurls it against a gravestone, smashing the baby’s left eye. The
father’s decaying body retains enough spirit so that one eyeball pops out, grows limbs and

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artists, who had to provide 100-150 pages per book, and if their debut failed to sell they takes up residence in the boy’s empty socket.
were fired. However, with the high turnover and little monitoring from publishers beyond

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the bottom line, subject matter was wide ranging and sometimes shocking for parents. This first story, Okashi-na Yatsu (“Strange Guy”) continues with the introduction of

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Similar to the US outcry at the time, there was a “Campaign to Banish Bad Reading Matter” another Kitaro regular, Nezumi Otoko (“Rat Man”), a smelly, untrustworthy half-yōkai.

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with the slogan “Uranai Kawanai Yomanai!” (“Don’t Sell, Don’t Buy, Don’t Read!”) but, Kitaro, Nezumi Otoko, and Medama Oyaji (“Eyeball Dad”) help out a student haunted by an

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dissimilarly, publishers and readers ignored it and comics continued to thrive. ancient sorcerer. The artwork for the first run of Kitaro stories mixes realistic drawing with
stylisation for Kitaro and his yōkai friends, like the later manga, but the tone is darker and
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In 1957, Mizuki’s family moved to Tokyo. His father was a translator at the US Embassy and the humans less cartoonish, in the style of gekiga (“drama pictures”) which, spearheaded
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brought home boxes of comics including Superman and EC horror titles like Tales from the by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Yūrei Taxi, 1958), had emerged from the kashibon market in 1957

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Crypt. Mizuki’s debut book was Rocketman, with a painted cover of a superhero11 against to appeal to older readers.

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a background of a rocket and a flying saucer in space. Other releases in this decade, for

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which Mizuki supplied the cover art if not also the interior, include Yūrei Ikka (“Ghost Mizuki did three volumes for Togetsu Shobo, argued with the publisher over money, and
took his character to Sanyo-sha under the title Kitarō Yawai (“Night Tales of Kitaro”).

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Family”), Kyōfu no yūsei majin (“Horror of the Planet Demon”), Plastic Man (looking just

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like the Jack Cole character), Kaijū Ravan (“Monster Ravan,” a giant monster story), However, Togetsu Shobo had fellow kamishibai veteran Kano Takeuchi (1907-1995, real

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name Hachiro Takeuchi) take over the artwork for the series. In the fourth volume, Kineko

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Jigoku (“Hell”), and Jigoku no mizu (“Hell Water”), about a Himalayan water demon.
(“Tree Cat Girl”) kills Nezumi Otoko and meets her end at the hands of Kitaro, and in
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KITARO the finale Kitaro’s father is surgically implanted into his socket. Mizuki’s Sanyo-sha run

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rebooted Kineko as Neko Musume (“Cat Girl”), who became Kitaro’s love interest, but his

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In 1954, a publisher asked Mizuki to continue the kamishibai series Hakaba no Kitarō,
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series did not last half as long due to disappointing sales. Horror appealing to adults was
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which had first appeared in 1933 in a story about an orphan boy ghost written by Masami
Itō with art by Kei Tatsumi. This was based on the Edo Period folk tale “Ame-kai yūrei”
doing fine in cinemas (there were four versions of Yotsuya Kaidan alone from 1956-61)
but perhaps Mizuki’s yōkai were too cartoonish for them and too morbid for children.12

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(“Sweets-buying Ghost”) recorded by Hearn. A thin, pale young woman buys midzu-ame
(malt syrup) at a sweets shop night after night. The concerned owner decides to follow her Kodansha’s Shonen Magazine debuted in 1959, the first weekly to carry manga stories (it
but she disappears at a Buddhist temple. The next day he talks to the temple monk, who would later become all manga). As the kamishibai and kashibon markets dried up, artists
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tells him a pregnant woman was recently buried there. The men decide to open her grave, moved into the weeklies. Creators from gekiga titles brought their grimmer, more realistic
and inside they find a child eating some candy. The mother is an ubume or kosodate yūrei takes on violence and horror to the magazines, as well as their Leftist politics. Shonen
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(“child-raising ghost”). eventually picked up “Kitaro” but in the meantime Mizuki introduced two more series

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teaming yōkai with a spooky child.
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Mizuki and Itō created four stories: “Karate Kitaro,” modelled on Mizuki’s elder brother;

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“Galois”; “Yurei Hand”; and “Snake People,” which introduced Medama Oyaji (see below). MIZUKI IN THE 1960s: THE KIDS ARE ALL FRIGHT
Although the revived Kitaro kamishibai was not a big hit, Mizuki returned to the story in

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1959 with a kashibon entitled Hakaba no Kitarō. The main character – also named Mizuki Mizuki returned to Togetsu Shobo and created Kappa no Sanpei, an eight-volume kashibon
series in 1961-62. The protagonist, Sanpei Kawahara, is a country boy living with his
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The Adventures of Superman (1952-8 in the US) was first broadcast on Japanese TV in 1956. The
theatrical series Koketsu No Kyojin (“Supergiant”) began in December 1957. The first television superhero 12
An anime series adapting the first Kitaro run aired January 11th to March 21st, 2008. In the late 1950s,
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boom was kicked off by Gekko Kamen (“Moonlight Mask”) in February 1958. children could see the yōkai-heavy theatrical series Akado Suzunosuke and Seishun Kaidan.

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grandfather. Sanpei not only swims for his school, he also has a peculiarly kappa-like The switch in manga releasing from monthly to weekly brought the experience of reading

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haircut, so understandably, when he is floating around in a river, kappa “rescue” him and episodes closer to the viewing of television series, and if a manga story became popular,

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take him below to their world. Realizing he is human, the elders sentence him to death, a television version was sure to follow. One could argue that if a series were seen as a

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but he convinces them he can bring useful knowledge from the modern world. Not fully
trusting Sanpei, they remove his belly button (where they believe his soul resides)13 and
possible hit in both media, for children, the motivation or pressure to lighten things up
would follow. Kitaro had faltered in his ghastly first incarnation, and Mizuki was unable

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send along a young kappa, Kanpei, to accompany him. Like Kitaro and Mizuki, Sanpei to sell “Graveyard Kitaro” to animation studios, so the boy had a makeover. Kitaro quit
acquires his identity through yōkai and the loss of a body part. Death stalks Sanpei – smoking, for one thing, and his irregular buck teeth gave way to curiously pursed lips. He

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literally. The skull-headed Shinigami (“Death God”) is after him and his grandfather became a friend of humans instead of an agent of supernatural punishment. Grue was

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throughout the series. Amidst all the slapstick and scatology, this is a story of abandoned scaled back. Still, this was a story about a one-eyed ghost boy with an eyeball father and a

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children facing life and mortality and searching for their parents. It seems that in Mizuki’s farting ratman friend. Sponsors were leery of being associated with graveyards and ghosts.

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life, at least as he tells it, the macabre and comedy are inseparable.
However, 1966 was the year of live action monster shows like Ultra Q (running since
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Wanting to explore the yōkai of the West, Mizuki’s next kashibon series was Akuma- January) and seven daikaijū movies16, so sponsors pulled the trigger on Akuma-kun,
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kun (“Devil Boy,” 1963-4). Ichirō Matsushita is nicknamed “Akuma-kun” because of his starring Mitsunobu “Johnny Sokko” Kaneko as the hero and Yoshio Yoshida as Mephisto,

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onion-like hairstyle and bulging eyes. He is destined to save the world from evil by uniting a devil whom Akuma-kun keeps in line with Solomon’s Flute, an ocarina given to him by

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The Twelve Apostles with the aid of Dr. Faust. The series was planned to last five volumes Faust. The series ran for 26 episodes and pitted the team against Japanese yōkai like

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but poor sales truncated it at three, leaving Akuma-kun dead at the hands of the Judas- the hundred-eyed ganma and a yuki onna, and Western monsters like a mummy and a

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like apostle Yamoribito (later manga would resurrect Akuma-kun and conclude the story wolfman. Acceptable to Japanese sponsors, but I doubt the devil-conjuring and bloody

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arc). Akuma-kun was the first of Mizuki’s manga to criticize the war. eye damage in the first episode would have played on daytime television in the West.

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Mizuki’s next magical boy was more successful commercially, especially since it was his Akuma-kun’s success spurred new interest in Mizuki and Graveyard Kitaro. In 1967 a
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move from kashibon to Shonen Magazine, the best seller of the decade. Asked to deliver a producer friend at Toei, Akira Watanabe, suggested a name change and Mizuki came up

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science fiction story, Mizuki crossed yōkai and technology in Terebi-kun (“TV Kid,” 1965), with GeGeGe no Kitaro.

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in which our hero Yamada can enter televisions to steal products shown in commercials
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and give them to impoverished children in the real world. Only Yamada’s friend Santa
knows his secret. Again, there is familial loss and childhood hardship; Santa’s father is
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dead, his mother is sick, and he has to sell newspapers to support his family. Television There are several takes on an English rendering of “GeGeGe”: “Brrr!”, “Spooky Ooky,”
sets were enjoying a huge spike in sales because of the unprecedented scale of telecasts “The Spooky,” and “Boo boo boo.” In the manga it is the sound of a chorus of frogs,
of the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo.14 The story won the Kodansha Juvenile birds, and insects singing Kitaro’s praise when he wins a battle. “Ge!” is also a cry of
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Manga Award in 1966 and drew further attention to the artist. As far as I know, Terebi- startled repulsion. As a child, Shigeru Mizuki had a speech impediment and pronounced
kun is the first yōkai to inhabit modern electronic media, which would later be exploited his name as “Gegeru,” so his nickname was “Ge-ge.” The title change matched the
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manga (relaunched November 12th, 1967 in Weekly Shonen Magazine) with a new Kitaro
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with a vengeance in films like Ring (1998).15 The manga magazine Terebi-kun, published

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series, this time an anime, which began on January 3rd, 1968 and was directed by Isao
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by Shogakukan since 1976, is an anthology of comics starring television superheroes.
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Takahata, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli. Episodes were adapted from the new manga,

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which itself had reworked stories from the kashibon days. For example, the anime would
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Sanpei gets off lightly. Some kappa suck out the shirikodama (“Anus Gem”), the lifeforce ball, then haul
be a third outing for the daikaijū tale, entitled “Creature from the Deep” in the 2013 US
out the liver and eat it.

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The Olympics formed the background for Walk, Don’t Run (1966) starring Samantha Eggar and Cary “Kitaro” collection. The anime ran until March 30th, 1969, with 65 episodes. The single
Grant, and the event itself was the subject of Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad (1965). The Japanese
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VIgymnastic team’s use of the term “Ultra C” begat the titles of two 1966 series in the second TV superhero
boom, Ultra Q and Ultraman. 16
Toho with War of the Gargantuas and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Daiei with Gamera vs. Barugon, and the
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Ring’s ghost girl arising from a well echoes an oft-told story, Bancho Sarayashiki (“Dish Mansion of Daimajin triptych, and Toei with The Magic Serpent. All four major studios would release monster movies
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Bancho”), first filmed in 1911. in 1967.

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of its opening theme song, “Hakaba no Kitarō,” sold 300,000 copies, with lyrics by Mizuki THE YŌKAI BOOM

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which, roughly translated, go: “In the morning I sleep, Zzz Zzz Zzz... Yōkai don’t have to
Not that he had time to enjoy it, but Mizuki was the epicentre of the yōkai boom of 1968.

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go to school...” Presumably this delighted children, if not their parents.

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Shonen Magazine was selling over a million copies a week. On television, Kitaro was joined

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In the manga, Kitaro lives in poverty on the outskirts of town with his father Medama by another live-action adaptation of his work, Kappa no Sanpei: Yōkai Daisakusen (“Kappa

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Oyaji, and associates with Nezumi Otoko, Neko Musume, Ittanmomen (literally “One Tan Sanpei: Great Yōkai Strategy,” October 4th, 1968 to March 28th, 1969, 26 episodes),
[29cm x 10m] Cotton,” a flying bolt of cotton), Sunakake Baba (“Sand-spreading Crone”), starring Yoshinobu Kaneko as Sanpei and Ushio Kenji from the Akuma-kun show as Itachi

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Konaki Jiji (“Baby-bawling Old Man”), and Nurikabe (“Coated Wall,” a mobile wall). Kitaro Otoko (“Weasel Man”), a character much like Nezumi Otoko from Kitaro. (Kenji is a familiar

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can mentally control his geta sandals and detachable hand, and his hair can pop up like face, usually a villain in Kamen Rider, Lone Wolf, and sentai productions of the 1970s).

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antennae to measure “spirit energy” or shoot from his skull like needles. He can blend into

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Other television monster and horror series running or beginning in 1968 were Kamen

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backgrounds like a chameleon, flatten himself out like a rug, and take other shapes much
like Plastic Man. He can talk to the fleas living in his rags and send them on missions. He no Ninja Akakage (“Masked Ninja Red Shadow,” also starring Yoshinobu Kaneko); Ninja
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wears a stripy chanchanko vest woven from the spirit hairs of his ancestors, which can fly Hattorikun + Ninja kaijū Zippo (“Ninja Hattori + Ninjamonster Zippo”); Ultra Seven; Kaiju
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about and strangle enemies by itself. In a pinch he can generate an electric shock. And of Oji (“Monster Prince”); Giant Robo a.k.a. “Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot”; Kaiki

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course, Kitaro and his dad have deep knowledge of yōkai lore. daisakusen (“Operation Mystery”); and two seasons of Mighty Jack, the second of which

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featured monsters. Anime on television included Ōgon Batto; Yōkai Ningen Bem (“Yōkai

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The stories are eerie and often funny, and very weird. Mizuki’s Kitaro works from his mid- Human Bem17”); Bōken Shōnen Shyadaa (“Adventure Boy Shudder”); Mahotsukai Sally
sixties breakout onward seem gentler and nostalgic for a magical, bucolic mythical past, (“Sorcerer Sally”); Osamu Tezuka’s Vampire, which mixed anime with live-action; the pilot

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rather than the desperate horrors of the boy’s early years when Mizuki was living month- of Tezuka’s Dororo; Chibikko kaijū Yadamon (“Little Monster Yadamon”); Oraa Guzura

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to month, not knowing if he would be able to afford to eat. Perhaps, however, the new

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dado (“Hey, I’m Guzura!”); and Kaibutsu-kun (“Monster Boy”)18.
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stories were more subversive. Kitaro achieves much of its power though the blending of
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the ordinary, often rural and impecunious everyday world with the fantastic. Our mundane In the theatres, Daiei’s 100 Monsters was released March 20th, on a double bill with Gamera

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experience, easily recognisable as it is so meticulously rendered in photorealistic detail, vs. Viras, and Spook Warfare, which drew even more clearly on Mizuki, on December 14th

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with The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (Hebimusume to hakuhatsuma, directed
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is seen through Kitaro’s eye with ironic detachment. Mortal humans come across as
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blinkered, ignorant fools briefly materializing in the world of ancient elemental spirits. Are
we haunting them? Compare Mizuki’s stories with those of contemporary horror manga
by Gamera’s Noriaki Yuasa and based on Kazuo Umezu’s manga). The same studio
released The Snow Woman (Kaidan yukijorō) on April 20th, and a double bill of the yūrei

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maestro Kazuo Umezu (b. 1936, also known in Japan as a comedy manga creator for film The Ghostly Trap (Kaidan otoshiana, Kōji Shima) and The Bride from Hades (Botan-
series like Makoto-chan, 1976), in which the viewpoint is of ordinary human children who dōrō, Satsuo Yamamoto’s take on the classic ghost story) on June 15th. Kindai Eiga
find themselves in a malevolent universe. Kyokai produced the kaibyō19 (ghost cat) classic Kuroneko (Yabu no naka no Kuroneko),
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Antagonists can be human criminals or monsters of the West like Dracula, but in most cases no numa, Yoshihiro Ishikawa, aka The Cursed Pond) and Snake Woman’s Curse (Kaidan:
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they are yōkai; although like Sekien, the 18th century cryptozoologist, Mizuki feels free to Hebi onna, Nobuo Nakagawa) on July 12th, and The Green Slime (Gamma dai-san-go:

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embellish and invent his own versions, or just make up new creatures, and it is these which Uchū daikusen) on December 19th. Okura Eiga released Ghost Story: Dismembered
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populate the yōkai films of this collection. The characters are usually drawn with smooth, Ghost (Kaidan: Barabara yūrei, Kinya Ogawa) on May 28th. Shochiku released Goke:

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clean lines as if they were ready for an animation cel, but large yōkai can be rendered in a lot Bodysnatcher from Hell (Kyūketsuki Gokemidoro, Hajime Satō) on August 14th, The Living
of detail with hatching and dotted shading to suggest textures and ghostly light. There is little

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use of screentones, except here and there as an extra layer of shade. Backgrounds are usually
very detailed and heavily photo referenced. I imagine Mizuki’s assistants do the calorie-burning 17
“Bem,” used in several kaiju names, is adopted from the American SF acronym of “Bug Eyed Monster.”
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The first anime yōkai films were Seitarō Kitayama’s Monkey and Crab Battle (Saru to kani gassen) and
Severed-tongue Sparrow (Shitakiri suzume) of 1917.
not to credit assistants but Mizuki’s sixties team included Ryōichi Ikegami (Sanctuary, 1990), 19
The first known kaibyō film is Night Blossoms of Saga (Saga no yozakura, 1910), based upon the 1853
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Yoshiharu Tsuge (Screw Style, 1967), and Takao Yaguchi (Fisherman Sanpei, 1974). kabuki play by Joko Segawa III.

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Skeleton (Kyūketsu dokurosen, Hiroshi Matsuno) and Insect War (Konchūdaisensō, Kazui Tomoo Haraguchi, 2004) and demons and werewolves in its sequel (also 2004), based on

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Nihonmatsu, released in the US as Genocide) on November 9th. Toho rolled out Destroy All a manga by Takao Shimamoto and Tatsuya Morino, the latter an assistant of Mizuki and

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Monsters (Kaijū sōshingeki, Ishirō Honda) on August 1st and re-released 1963’s Atragon illustrator of Matt Alt’s book Yokai Attack!. 2005’s The Great Yokai War was followed by

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(Kaitei gunkan, Ishirō Honda 1963), featuring the ayakashi (sea serpent) Manda. two live-action Kitaro movies directed by Katsuhide Motoke, GeGeGe no Kitarō (2007) and
GeGeGe no Kitarō: Sennen noroi uta (“1000 Year Curse”). Several yōkai appear in Yudai

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Why was 1968 the peak year of yōkai? It was a tumultuous decade in Japan across Yamaguchi’s Rokuroku (2017) but they are all one witch taking various forms.
the board. Old neighbourhoods in Tokyo had been razed. The bullet train now whisked

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THE END

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past where, not that long ago, people had walked the haunted footpath of Tokaido. Did

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Mizuki’s ghosts speak to both anxiety and a sense of nostalgia for a simpler, mythical

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time now gone? In regard to yōkai films, there is a clear development of giant monster Shigeru Mizuki passed away on November 30th 2015. Kitaro had become a merchandising

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phenomenon, the star of manga, games, anime, and live action movies. He was, for a

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movies from dark horrors for all ages towards child-oriented fare. Perhaps by this time,
the Mizuki-style yōkai were seen by studios as creatures they could market to children, while, the mascot of the Gainare Tottori soccer team (replaced by Gainaman in recent
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whilst parents continued to shudder at the bloody horrors of yūrei and kaibyō. Kids were years). Mizuki appeared at the end of The Great Yokai War as the Great Yokai Elder.
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lapping up monsters and ghosts on television and in manga, so it might have been the He has won numerous awards in Japan and abroad, as have translations of his books.

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time when movie yōkai, which took more money and effort to create than the merely Mizuki travelled to various countries gathering yōkai tales for his bestiaries, and the 2008

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disfigured ghosts of stories like “Yotsuya Kaidan,” were seen as worth a risk. autobiography by his wife, Ge Ge Ge no nyōbō (“Ge Ge Ge’s Wife”) was adapted as a

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television series and a 2010 movie.
The bestiaries of the old scrolls and yōkai guides had not been that deeply represented

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on screen, especially not en masse as in the Daiei trilogy, although it is hard to tell as Tourists can land at the Yonago Kitaro airport in Tottori and take a ghost train to
Sakaiminato’s Mizuki Shigeru Road, set out in 1993, admiring the bronze statues of his

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such a high proportion of pre-war films are lost. There were over a dozen adaptations

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of Honjo Nanafushigi (“Seven Mysteries of Honjo”), starting in 1914 and culminating in characters lining the pavements and shopping for Medama Oyaji balloons and Kitaro toilet
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Shintoho’s 1957 Ghost Stories of a Wanderer at Honjo aka Seven Mysteries, directed by paper by the light of eyeball streetlamps. A statue of Mizuki stands at the temple where

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Gorō Kadono. The Seven Mysteries was an oral tradition of the Honjo area of Edo, once he studied Hell paintings as a child. One can spend some time in the Mizuki Shigeru

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Museum built in 2003, posing for photographs with cut-outs of his ghostly creations and
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dark and sparsely populated but now a part of Sumida ward in Tokyo. It was a collection
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of stories of various yōkai, which form a parade in the 1957 film. There are tanuki, yūrei,
ghost snakes, a rokurokubi, a chōchin obake (lantern ghost), a hitotsume kozō (“one-eyed
admiring the collection of masks and carvings collected from his trips to Africa and New
Guinea. Outside the station is a statue of Shigeru Mizuki at his desk, pen in hand, watched

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apprentice”), a mitsume otoko (“three-eyed man”), a nopperabō (“blank-faced one”), and closely by Medama Oyaji, Nezumi Otoko and of course Kitaro. Mizuki’s mouth is open. Is
the ever-delightful karakasa obake (“from-umbrella ghost”). In Shinko Kinema’s 1937 he yawning, or hungry, or telling his children another tale of yōkai?
version, there are tanuki and, in the story “Foot-washing Mansion,” a giant phantom leg.
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It also contains the story “Oitekibori” (“Leave It & Go Moat”) which re-appears in 100 Jolyon Yates was born in England and now lives in Denver with one woman, two dogs, and
Monsters. There were films referencing the yōkai parades of the Hyakki Yako picture, at least one mouse.
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Muromachi goten hyakkaden (“100 Weird Legends Of Muromachi Palace,” 1914), Hyakki

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yako (1927), and Hyakki yako Oedo kyōfu-hen (“Night Parade of 100 Demons: Edo Terror,”
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1928) but these are lost.

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Since 1968, a yōkai parade has been the highlight of Pom Poko, the 1994 Studio Ghibli

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anime directed by Isao Takahata which gives special thanks to Mizuki, and Sakuya: Slayer
of Demons (Sakuya yōkaiden), a 2000 live-action fantasy directed by Tomoo Haraguchi,
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wonderful Spirited Away, and in 2011 A Letter to Momo (Momo e no tegami ), directed
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by Hiroyuki Okiura. There is a village full of yōkai in Kibakichi (Bakko yōkaiden Kibakichi,

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THE GREAT YOKAI WAR

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PRESS NOTES

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The following production notes and character biographies were written by Keith Aiken as

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The legends of Japan are replete with tales of the strange creatures known as yōkai. Not
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quite apparitions, monsters, or ghosts, the yōkai are mystical beings that secretly live in

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the world of men. Mostly unseen, they come in a variety of bizarre forms – some hideous,
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some cute – and have incredible supernatural powers. They tend to be mischievous

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and playful, but they are sometimes dangerous towards humans because the yōkai are

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not restrained by the laws of nature. Most avoid people and simply haunt the province

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where they were “born,” but others enjoy the company of men and travel all over Japan.

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Despite their prominent place in Japanese folklore, the yōkai have been the subject of
only a handful of films over the years... notable examples include Hiruko the Goblin (Yōkai

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Hantā: Hiruko, 1990), Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning blockbuster Spirited Away (Sen to
V Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001), and director Tomoo Haraguchi’s Sakuya, Slayer of Demons

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(Sakuya Yokaiden, 2001) and Kibakichi (Kibakichi: Bakko-yokaiden, 2004). Perhaps the

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most enduring of the yokai movies was the classic trilogy produced by Daiei Motion

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Picture Company in the late 1960s: 100 Monsters (1968), Spook Warfare (1968), and
E Along with Ghosts (1969).

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Set in the 18th century, 100 Monsters tells the story of a crooked Shrine Magistrate and
a greedy developer who tear down a shrine and replace it with a brothel. On opening
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day they call in a local storyteller to entertain their guests with the Hundred Monster
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neglected the exorcism ritual that traditionally ends opening ceremonies. The brothel is
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soon haunted by the hundred spirits that had been set free by the storyteller’s tales, and

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the two men are driven to madness and death.

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100 Monsters featured many of the most famous yōkai characters – including Kasabake
the umbrella monster, the water spirit Kappa, Lamp Oil, and Rokurokubi the long-necked

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woman – as spirits of vengeance. These same yōkai took on more heroic roles in Spook
Warfare by banding together to protect innocent townspeople from Daimon, a powerful
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a little girl named Miyo whose grandfather was murdered on sacred ground by a corrupt
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clan leader and his men. The Daiei yōkai movies were rarely seen in the United States

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until ADV Films released all three on Region 1 DVD in 2003 as the Yokai Monsters series. story for The Great Yokai War. Headlining this group was 83-year-old Shigeru Mizuki, the

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In 2002, Daiei was purchased by Kadokawa Publishing, who merged the studio with the creator of the manga Little Devil (Akuma-Kun) and Kitaro (GeGeGe no Kitaro) which were

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company’s own film unit to form the new Kadokawa Pictures. 2005 marked Kadokawa’s first published by Shonen Magazine in 1966 and brought to television by Toei Animation.

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60th anniversary, and as part of the year’s festivities the company decided to produce
an updated version of Spook Warfare. Billed as “the biggest fantasy adventure film in
The popularity of these series earned Mizuki the title of “the father of yōkai tales.” One
scene in The Great Yokai War even takes place at the Shigeru Mizuki Museum located in

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the history of Japan,” the new movie was given the English title The Great Yokai War. his hometown of Sakaiminato. Mizuki was joined by the other members of the “Kwai”
In charge of the film was executive producer Tsuguhiko Kadokawa (chairman and CEO Team (Scary Team) such as Hiroshi Aramata, author of the 1971 novel Teito Monogatari

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of Kadokawa Publishing) and producer Fumio Inoue, an experienced horror filmmaker which was adapted into the live action movie trilogy Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (Teito

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who had produced Inugami (2001), One Missed Call (Chakushin Ari, 2003) and Three... Monogatari, 1987), Tokyo: The Last War (Teito Taisen, 1989), and Tokyo Story: Secret

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Extremes (Saam Gaang Yi, 2004). To direct The Great Yokai War, the pair chose a director Report (Teito Monogatari Gaiden, 1995), as well as the four-part anime Doomed Megalopolis

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Inoue had worked with before: the talented and prolific Takashi Miike. (1991). Aramata wrote the original story for The Great Yokai War and acted as the script
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supervisor for the writing staff. Natsuhiko Kyogoku, author of horror novels Eternal Love

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Born near Osaka in 1960, Miike had studied directing under Shohei Imamura (Pigs (Warau Iemon) and Summer of Ubume (Ubume no Natsu) which were both recently made
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and Battleships, Unagi ) and Hideo Onchi (Young Wolf, The Call of Flesh) following his into films, was brought on as a “yōkai casting agent.” Rounding out the production team

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graduation from film school. He has worked on over seventy films in the past fifteen was Miyuki Miyabe, screenwriter of the Toho movie Pyrokinesis (Kurosufaia, 2000).

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years, starting with straight-to-video titles like Bodyguard Kiba (Bodigaado Kiba, 1993)

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before moving to theatrical features with Shinjuku Triad Society (Shinjuku kuroshakai: Many of the yōkai could never be described as “realistic” by western standards, but

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Chaina mafia senso, 1995), Fudoh: The Next Generation (Gokudô sengokushi: Fudô, 1996), the sheer variety of shapes, sizes, and appearances of these spirit creatures gave the

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and Rainy Dog (Gokudô kuroshakai, 1997); the latter film winning Miike the Japanese filmmakers an opportunity to play with just about every technique possible – suits,

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Professional Movie Best Director Award. The disturbing Audition (Ōdishon, 1999) brought makeup, prosthetics, puppetry, props, computer graphics, and more – to bring these
Miike international attention, the FIRPRESCI Prize at the 2000 Rotterdam International creatures to cinematic life. Art director Hisashi Sasaki, whose credits include Keizoku:
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Film Festival, and a US theatrical release from the American Cinematheque and Vitagraph The Movie (Keizoku/eiga, 2000), Ichi The Killer, and Madness in Bloom (Kyouki no Sakura,

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Films. It also earned him a reputation as one of the few Japanese directors guaranteed 2002), worked with the four designers who were in charge of creating, updating, and

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to draw audiences at festivals and cinemas around the world. Since Audition, Miike has building the yōkai. Many of the yōkai models and props were designed and sculpted by
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repeatedly validated that reputation with a slew of movies in a variety of genres: a partial Tomo Hyakutake, creator of the suit for Casshern (2004) and the poster designs for the

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list of his credits includes the twisted family story Visitor Q (Bijitā Kyū, 2001), the ultra- film Ashura (Ashura-jô no hitomi, 2005). Other yōkai were designed by Takayuki Takeya,
violent Ichi The Killer (Koroshiya 1, 2001), the horror comedy musical Happiness of the who had worked on Eko Eko Azarak II: Birth of the Wizard (Eko Eko Azaraku 2, 1996) and
Katakuris (Katakuri-ke no Kōfuku, 2001), the tragic drama Sabu (2002), the absolutely Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (Gamera 3: Irisu Kakusei, 1999), and manga artist Junya Inoue,
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bizarre yakuza story Gozu (Gokudō kyōfu dai-gekijō: Gozu, 2003), One Missed Call, the creator of the Otogi Matsuri stories serialized in Gum Comics. The machine yōkai called
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super-hero romp Zebraman (Zeburāman, 2004), the supernatural samurai story Izo Kikai were the work of Yasushi Nirasawa. Nirasawa has also worked on Vampire Hunter
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(2004), several episodes of Ultraman Max (Urutoraman Makkusu, 2005) – including a D (2000), Devilman Apocalypse (Amon: Debiruman Mokushiroku, 2000), and designed
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hilarious show with three monstrous mutated housecats – and Imprint (2006), the banned the new Gigan and Xilians for Godzilla: Final Wars (Gojira Fainaru Uozu, 2004). The yōkai

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episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. Miike has also appeared in small roles makeup and prosthetic appliances were created by Yoichi Matsui of The Eel (Unagi, 1997)
in several films such as The Neighbor No. 13 (Rinjin 13-gô, 2005) and Eli Roth’s horror hit and Ichi The Killer. The CGI director for The Great Yokai War was Kaori Otagaki, a talented

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Hostel (2005). computer artist who has worked on Miike’s films Ichi The Killer and One Missed Call.
The beautiful, humorous, and haunting soundtrack was created by Koji Endo, the main

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Takashi Miike was an inspired choice to direct The Great Yokai War, and the news created a composer for Takashi Miike’s films including Rainy Dog, Audition, Visitor Q, Happiness of
buzz among fans of Japanese cinema. With a budget of $10 million it would be his biggest
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the Katakuris, Sabu, Gozu, One Missed Call, Zebraman, Izo, and Masters of Horror: Imprint.
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VImovie to date, and many fans around the world eagerly awaited the director’s take on the
yōkai genre. Along with his co-screenwriters Mitsuhiko Sawamura (.hack//Quarantine) The creative team worked for a year and a half, with seven months of principal
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and Takehiko Itakura, Miike worked with an “all-star supernatural team” to craft the photography, to make The Great Yokai War. Their combined efforts created “the first

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family film from Takashi Miike” – a large-scale fantasy for all ages that manages to retain office, behind Madagascar, Star Wars: Episode III, and Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery

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much of the horror, action, comedy, and bodily fluids that the director’s fans have come to of Mew (Myu to Hadou no Yuusha – Rukario), and ahead of such big budget US fare as

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expect. As with better-known fantasy films like The Wizard of Oz (1939), The NeverEnding War of the Worlds and The Island. In five weeks the movie topped $22 million at the box

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Story (1984), or the Harry Potter series, The Great Yokai War will appeal to (perhaps less
squeamish) children and adults alike.
office, making it a major hit for the studio. Tsuguhiko Kadokawa quickly announced to the
Japanese press that The Great Yokai War would be the first movie in a series that will rival

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Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in worldwide appeal. Kadokawa Pictures also tapped
Unlike the 1968 version, the new film takes place in modern day Japan. Times are tough Takashi Miike to direct a remake of the classic Daiei monster movie Daimajin, but that

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for 10-year-old Tadashi Ino (Ryunosuke Kamiki). After his parent’s divorce, Tadashi and project has reportedly been put on hold due to the poor box office for the studio’s kaiju

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his mother Yoko (Kaho Minami) leave Tokyo and move in with his senile grandfather film Gamera the Brave (Chiisaki Yūsha-tachi Gamera, 2006). Horizon Entertainment is the

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Shunta Ino (Bunta Sugawara) who lives in a rural fishing village in the Totori prefecture. world sales agent for The Great Yokai War, and the Canadian company set up the film’s

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Having been raised in the city, Tadashi is not as physically fit as his new classmates international festival premiere in Venice in late August of 2005. These were followed by
so they constantly taunt and tease him. One night, Tadashi wanders into a local shrine
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festivals in Toronto and in Sitges, Spain and the first US screenings on November 5th

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festival and is knocked on the head by a man in a traditional dragon costume. One of and 7th, 2005 at the American Film Market. On February 12th, 2006 Kadokawa showed
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his classmates explains that he has been chosen as the next Kirin Rider, the defender of The Great Yokai War as part of the SF Indie Fest in San Francisco. Not long after, Media

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justice and peace in times of darkness. According to legend, the Kirin Rider must climb Blasters acquired US rights to the film. They launched a limited theatrical run in June with

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the nearby Goblin Mountain and claim the legendary sword guarded by a spirit called the dual premieres at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California and Subway Cinema’s

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Great Goblin. annual New York Asian Film Festival. The theatrical run apparently ended with a screening

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on September 29 at the Idaho International Film Festival, and Media Blasters released the
Remembering the bullies at school called him a crybaby, Tadashi is determined to climb film on DVD on September 12.

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the mountain and fulfill the prophecy. But he soon grows scared, turns back, and boards

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a bus heading towards town. As he rides home, he suddenly realizes there are scores of CAST AND CHARACTERS
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strange creatures staring at him through the bus windows. Tadashi screams in terror, and

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the spectres fade away before his eyes. The boy is startled by Sunekosuri, a catlike sprite According to the filmmakers The Great Yokai War features 1.2 million yōkai, most of whom

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that only he can see. The tiny creature has a damaged leg, so Tadashi brings Sunekosuri will be unfamiliar to western audiences. The following list should help viewers identify
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home with him to nurse it back to health. Checking a reference book, he learns that
Sunekosuri is one of the yōkai from Japanese folklore. Meanwhile, children begin to
many of the key yōkai and humans in the film.

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disappear across Japan, and terrifying mechanical monsters launch a series of attacks Tadashi Ino: Tadashi is the young “pipsqueak” who is chosen to be the new Kirin Rider.
against human beings. This is the handiwork of an evil being named Lord Yasunori Kato He quickly matures as he joins with the yōkai to fight against an army of evil spirits.
(Etsushi Toyokawa), who has used the power of Onmyodo (a mixture of natural science Tadashi is played by 12 year-old Ryunosuke Kamiki. Already a ten-year veteran of
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and occultism) to reawaken the giant raging spirit Yomotsumono. With the assistance of the acting business, Kamiki’s film credits include Rockers (Rokkazu, 2003), Bayside
his lover Agi the Bird-catching Sprite (Chiaki Kuriyama), Kato merges the souls of captured Shakedown 2 (Odoru Daisosasen 2: Rainbow Bridge wo Fuusa Seyo!, 2003), Install
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yōkai with trash and discarded mechanical items to create an army of machine monsters (Insutoru, 2004), and Zoo (2005). He has also provided voices for the Japanese versions of

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Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle (Hauru-no Ugoku Shiro, 2004)
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called Kikai. The anger and sadness of the yōkai and human victims adds to Lord Kato’s
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power, and soon he will merge with Agi and Yomotsumono into a being that will become plus the documentary March of the Penguins (2005).

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the absolute ruler of earth. Only Tadashi and the good yōkai stand in Lord Kato’s way, but
will the boy be able to find his courage, become the new Kirin Rider, and convince the good Shuntaro Ino: Tadashi’s half-senile but lovable grandfather who tells him about the

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yōkai to work together to prevent a new age of darkness? legend of the Kirin Rider. He loves to eat red bean rice. He is played by Bunta Sugawara,
a longtime audience favorite from his many films with director Kinji Fukusaku. Born in
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VIThe Great Yokai War was a co-production between Kadokawa Pictures, the Japan Film 1933, Sugawara had his first starring role in Modern Yakuza: The Rule of Outlaws (Gendai
Fund, and Nippon Television Network, with theatrical distribution in Japan handled by Yakuza: Yotamono o Okite, 1968), and in 1972 he had his first collaboration with Fukusaku,
Modern Yakuza: Outlaw Killer (Gendai Yakuza: Hito-Kiri Yota, aka Street Mobster). In 1976
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Shochiku. The film premiered on August 6th, 2005 and opened in 4th place at the box

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he won the Best Actor Blue Ribbon Award for his work in Cops vs. Thugs (Kenkei tai In The Great Yokai War Shojo uses his strange magical powers to lead Tadashi to the

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Soshiki Bōryoku), and followed that with a Japan Academy Award for The Man Who Stole Great Goblin Cave and to bring together the good yōkai for battle against Lord Kato. Actor

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the Sun (Taiyô wo nusunda otoko, 1979). His long list of credits includes Battles Without Masaomi Kondo made his debut in director Shohei Imamura’s Pornographers (Erogotoshi-

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Honor and Humanity (Jingi Naki Tatakai, 1973), The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto,
1985), Spirited Away, and Tales of Earthsea (Gedo Senki, 2006).
tachi yori: Jinruigaku nyûmon, 1968) and was a cast member of the long-running televison
series Song of Man (Ningen-no Uta, 1970-78).

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Sata: Sata is Tadashi’s friend and a reporter for Kai, a magazine about the strange Kawahime, the River Princess: Also known as the Yokai Pretty Girl (Yokai Bishojyo),

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creatures. As a child, Sata was saved from drowning by Kawahime, and he longs to see she is a very good swimmer but rarely spends time underwater. She is very agile and

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her again. He also takes part in a funny bit of product placement during The Great Yokai can even walk on water. Legends state that if you see her your heart will be moved by

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War. Actor Hiroyuki Miyasako is a well-known television comedian in Japan whose work in her beauty and your spirit snatched away, and Kawahime has reportedly saved lives

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Wild Berries (Hebi ichigo, 2003) won him the Mainichi Film Concours Sponichi Grand Prize by a river in Fukuoka province and sucked the life out of men in Kyushu and Shikoku.
New Talent Award and the Best New Actor award from the Yokohama Film Festival. Other Whether those stories are true or not, she is kind to children... and her thighs clearly hold
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recent credits include Casshern (2004), Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma monogatari, 2004), a fascination for young boys. Kawahime has an ancient connection to Lord Kato. 21-year-
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and Summer of Ubume (Ubume-no natsu, 2005). old model/actress Mai Takahashi has appeared in magazine photo layouts, McDonalds

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advertising, and the musical Futari. Her roles include an episode of the Shochiku television

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Lord Yasunori Kato (Majin Kato): The King of the Evil Monsters, Lord Kato was first series Horror Theater (Umezu Kazuo: Kyôfu gekijô, 2005) entitled “The Present,” Strange

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introduced in Hiroshi Aramata’s novel Teito Monogatari. He is an evil spirit raised from the Circus (Kimyô na sâkasu, 2005) and The Booth (Busu, 2005). A book of her modelling
dead by the grudge of the native people of Japan who were overthrown in ancient times.

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photographs was published in 2004.

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Kato mixes the things humanity has used and thrown away with the souls of yōkai to create

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an army of mechanical monsters to destroy mankind. Kato is played by Etsushi Toyokawa, Sunekosuri: A small, furry type of yōkai from Okayama that can sometimes be seen along

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an award-winning actor for his roles in Twinkle (Kira Kira Hikaru, 1992) and Loveletter mountain paths on rainy nights. Their name means “rub the shin,” and Sunekosuri scares
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(1993). He played a serial killer in Toho’s The Man Behind the Scissors (Hasami Otoko, people by running around their feet and clinging to their shins. If they are entertained

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2004) which is now available on DVD from Media Blasters. He followed up The Great Yokai for a while they will leave once they are satisfied. In The Great Yokai War Tadashi

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War with the horror film Loft (Rofuto, 2005), Dead Run (Shisso, 2005) from Kadokawa befriends a wounded Sunekosuri. Puppeteers Junko Takeuchi and Mao Sasaki performed
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Pictures, and the box office hit Sinking of Japan (Nippon Chinbotsu, 2006) from Toho. Sunekosuri’s actions, with Sasaki also providing the yōkai’s voice.

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Agi the Bird-catching Sprite (Torizashi Yojo): Agi is a cold-blooded yōkai who betrayed Kawataro: A water spirit known as a kappa that lives in ponds and rivers, Kawataro is
and captures her brethren for Lord Kato’s spirit army. Born in 1984, actress Chiaki a green-skinned creature with a turtle shell on his back and a plate on his head. Some
Kuriyama is a former model and winner of the 1998 “Miss Tokyo Walker” competition. kappa are pranksters but some are violent and will drag humans underwater and pull
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She appeared in the early video version of Ju-on (2000) and made a huge international their victim’s soul from their anus. Some kappa are friendly and like to sumo wrestle
impression with her performance in Kinji Fukusaku’s controversial blockbuster Battle for fun. Actor Sadao Abe is a member of the theatrical company Otona Keikaku, and
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Royale (Battoru Rowaiaru, 2000). That role caught the eye of Quentin Tarantino, who cast has appeared in the television series Kisarazu Cat’s Eye (2002) and the movies Uzumaki

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her as Go Go Yubari in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003). Kuriyama also appeared in Last Quarter (2000), Kamikaze Girls, and Kisarazu Cat’s Eye: Sayonara Game.
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(Kagen No Tsuki, 2004), Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005), and the recent Kisarazu Cat’s Eye:

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Sayonara Game (2006). Great Goblin (O Tengu): Originally an evil spirit that kidnapped children, O Tengu was
defeated and punished for his deeds by the Kirin Rider. He then changed his ways,

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Shojo the Kirin Herald (Shyo Jyo): Shojo is a baboon spirit whose body and clothing are becoming the protector of his land and guardian of the legendary sword in the cave on
entirely red. It is said he is that color because he is always drunk on sake. He stands at Goblin Mountain. He is played by Kenichi Endo, an actor whose extensive list of credits
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path. In feudal times, there was an outbreak of smallpox and many people used Shojo The Happiness of the Katakuris, Azumi, Gozu, One Missed Call, Izo, Azumi 2: Death or Love,
dolls as talismans to ward off the evil god they thought was responsible for the disease. Flower and Snake 2 (Hana to Hebi 2: Pari/Shizuko, 2005), and Sinking of Japan.
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Lamp Oil (Aburasumashi): Also known as the Oil Licker, Aburasumashi resembles an bite of his tofu is cursed, with some victims even dying from a fungus that begins to grow

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expressionless old man wearing a traditional Japanese straw raincoat. He is the spirit in their stomach. Tofu Kozo is played by Toru Hotohara.

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of people who stole heating oil in ancient times. He lives in the mountain pass called

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Bakeneko the Monster Cat: An old cat that became a yōkai, Bakeneko is a shapeshifter

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Kusazumigoe in Kumamoto prefecture, and if someone says “Aburasumashi used to live
around here a long time ago,” he will suddenly appear to say, “I still live here.” The Oil with magical powers. She will often haunt the house of her former owners, menacing

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Licker is a very wise spirit, and a member of the Yokai Council. Lamp Oil is played by writer/ them in their sleep. In some cases she will even take the place of her owner after eating
director Naoto Takenaka. Takenaka won the Japanese Academy Prize for his performances her. Bakeneko is played by Minori Fujikura, an actress who had earlier appeared in Takashi

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in Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t (Shiko Funjatta, 1992), East Meets West (1995), and Shall We Miike’s One Missed Call.

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Dance? (1996), and was given the International Critics Association Award at the 48th

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Venice International Film Festival for his directorial debut, Nowhere Man (Muno-no Hito, Aobozu the Blue Monk: Before the wheat is ready for harvest, the one-eyed Aobozu

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emerges from the fields to kidnap any children who are playing after dark. This yōkai is

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1991). His credits include Hiruko the Goblin, Patlabor 2 (Kidô keisatsu patorebâ 2, 1993),
played by stuntman Makoto Arakawa.
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The Mystery of Rampo (1994), Pokemon (1997), Sakuya: Slayer of Demons, and Azumi.

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Sunakake Baba the Sand Throwing Old Hag: Sunakake Baba is a shaman who was Okubi: A yōkai with giant head. When someone dies while holding an intense grudge,

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Okubi appears before the person they hate and scares them. He will not harm that person;
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transformed into a yōkai. Most people can’t see her, but she likes to scare people visiting

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shrines by throwing sand at them. She can also turn enemies into sand. Sunakake Baba he just frightens them and weakens them emotionally. Actor Renji Ishibashi has appeared

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in more than a hundred movies, including the classic Lone Wolf and Cub series, The Inferno

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has a funny encounter with Sata. Actress Toshie Negishi has appeared in The Drifting
(Jigoku, 1979), Tokyo Blackout (Shuto shôshitsu, 1987), Tetsuo the Iron Man (Tetsuo,

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Classroom (Hyôryu kyôshitsu, 1987), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (Yume, 1990), Audition,

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Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, Azumi 2: Death or Love, Masters of Horror: Imprint, and God’s 1989), Audition, Pyrokinesis, Graveyard of Honor (Shin Jinji no Hakaba, 2002), Gozu, One
Missed Call, Flower and Snake (Hana to Hebi, 2004), Izo, One Missed Call 2 (Chakushin

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Left Hand, The Devil’s Right Hand (Kami no Hidarite, Akuma no Migite, 2006).
Ari 2, 2005), Shinobi (2005), and Masked Rider the First (Kamen Raidâ the First, 2005).
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General Nurarihyon (the Old Man): Considered to be the leader of the Yokai Council,

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Nopperabo (No-Face): A yōkai that delights in scaring people with her featureless face.
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Nurarihiyon resembles a wealthy elderly master with a huge head. He is a tricky yōkai

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She often imitates a real person in order to lure victims s close as possible before revealing
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who never gets caught because he is slippery and hard to grasp like a catfish. Nurarihyon
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sometimes goes into people’s houses and makes himself at home. People assume he’s an
invited guest, and by the time they realize he’s not he is already gone. General Nurarihyon
her true face. Nopperabo is played by actress Riko Narumi, whose credits include Trick:
The Movie (2002) and Waters (Uotazu, 2006).

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is played by Kiyoshiro Imawano, lead singer of the rock group RC Succession. He is known
Kasabake the Umbrella Monster: When an old umbrella (known as karakasa) has been
as “Japan’s King of Rock” and in 1992 he received an honorary citizenship from the Mayor
abandoned, a spirit dwells in it and turns it into a playful monster. During the daytime it’s
of Memphis, Tennessee. Imawano’s acting credits include Happiness of the Katakuris and
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Otakus in Love (Koi-no Mon, 2004). He performs the theme song for The Great Yokai War.
just a worn out umbrella, but at night it becomes a yōkai that likes to scare people by
licking them with its long tongue.
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Ippon Datara (One-Leg the Blacksmith): A one-legged yōkai who lives deep in the
Nuppeppo: This yōkai appears as a greasy chunk of meat to scare people. Nuppeppo

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mountain on Kii peninsula, Ippon is a skilled blacksmith who forges swords for the
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generally wanders deserted streets, temples and graveyards. It stinks like rotting meat.
mountain god. Under his agreement with the mountain god, he gets December 20th off
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from work to do whatever he pleases. Actor Hiromasa Taguchi has appeared in Sumo Do,
Sumo Don’t, Shall We Dance?, When You Sing of Love (Koi ni Utaeba, 2002), Sky High, and Otoroshi: A large, long-haired creature that guards temples and shrines. It lives on top of

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Rampo Noir (Rampo Jigoku, 2005). the shrine gates, waiting to pounce on people who are disrespectful.
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VITofu Kozo (Tofu Boy): This yōkai resembles a young man dressed in traditional garb and Yuki Onna the Snow Woman: A beautiful female yōkai, she usually appears on cold and
straw hat who is holding a plate of tofu garnished with a Japanese maple leaf. Tofu Kozo snowy days. She is often described as having white or ice-blue skin, being cold to the
sometimes appears on quiet roads at night, offering tofu to travelers. Anyone who takes a
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touch, and with breath as cold as ice. She is thought to be the very spirit of the snow.

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Yuki Onna was the focus of a famous segment from the Toho film Kwaidan (Kaidan, 1964). Mitsume Kozo (Three-Eyed Little Monk): Similar to the one-eyed Hitosume Kozo,

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Actress Rie Yoshii has also appeared in Hibi (2005) and Nightingalo (2006). Mitsume Kozo is a ghost resembling a small boy in traditional garb. Mitsume has a third

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eye on its forehead, which grants it greater enlightenment and the ability to see below the

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Rokurokubi (Long-Necked Woman): This yōkai is a beautiful woman who can stretch

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her neck to incredible lengths. According to a book from the Edo period, maids would
surface. The Three-Eyed Little Monk is played by actor Kenji Hirono.

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become Rokurokubi after contracting a rare disease. Their necks would stretch out while Kamakiri: The Praying Mantis is also known as the hair-cutting yōkai because it is known
they slept, hunting for insects to eat. Rokurokubi will also feast on the vitality of human to sneak up on people and chop their hair off at the roots without them noticing. Kamikiri

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males. Actress Asumi Miwa plays Rokurokubi. Her other credits include Uzamaki (2000), often attack people in bathrooms or while they sleep, and is said to have a fondness for

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the video version of Ju-on (2000), and Appleseed (Appurushido, 2004). the hair of servant girls. It is played by Hiroyuki Otake.

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Nurikabe (Painted Wall): A weird yōkai that often mimics walls and other man-made

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structures. It also walks around at night creating obstacles for anyone trying to pass by... a robber. He wanders through villages, searching for the man who killed him. He has eyes
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particularly people who are in a hurry. His massive body is always knocking things over. on the palms of his hands, and sees by waving his hands in front of him. But Tenoume is
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Nurikabe is played by stuntman Koichi Funayama. so blinded by his anger that he has never found his murderer and instead attacks anyone

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he can get his hands on. Tenoume is played by Nobuo Fujiyama.

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Hyakume (Hundred Eyes): A creature with eyes all over his body. It protects shrines from

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thieves. If someone steals from a temple, Hyakume will send one of its hundred eyes to Ungaikyou: A Magic Mirror yōkai that can show faraway places and people. Mirrors were

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brand them publicly as a thief. extremely rare in ancient Japan so Ungaikyou would often confuse people by reflecting

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their visage to them. If a mirror is preserved for a hundred years it may gain sentience and
Hitosume Kozo (One-Eyed Little Monk): A small one-eyed yōkai that resembles a young become an Ungaikyou.

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boy dressed in traditional clothes like a monk in training. Hitosume Kozo is a mischievous
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prankster who likes to scare people by leaping out of the shadows or sneaking into houses Kikai: They are mechanical monsters created from the mixture of yōkai and waste

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after faithfully serving their human owners. Yōkai that are transformed into Kikai lose their
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Tsuchikorobi (Rolling Soil): Tsuchikorobi rolls down mountains but doesn`t do anything
bad beyond running over the occasional traveler. It is played by stuntman Naoki Asaji.
spirits and become the followers of Lord Kato.

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Yomotsumono (Great Supernatural): The giant raging spirit takes the form of a living
Ittan Momen: A 35-foot long cloth-like yōkai that used to fly around at night and attack factory, a massive monster that even dwarfs daikaijū like Godzilla and Gamera.
people by wrapping around their throats. He is occasionally used as a magic carpet by
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the other yōkai. Ittan Momen is a famous yōkai thanks to his prominent role in Shigeru
Mizuki’s manga Kitaro (GeGeGe no Kitaro).
Kirin: An extremely powerful mystical being that resembles a fiery golden flying horse.
The Kirin is a good luck omen that brings peace and prosperity. In The Great Yokai War,
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Tadashi attends a festival honoring the Kirin.

Azuki Arai, the Azuki-Bean Washer: A yōkai that stays by a riverside and washes azuki

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beans which are used for charms and driving off evil spirits. He cannot be seen and he Farmer in cow barn: The unnamed farmer at the beginning of The Great Yokai War is
uses the sound of washing red beans by the river to scare people. Azuki Arai used to be a played by Akira Emoto. Emoto’s credits include Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (Gojira tai

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young Buddhist disciple who was famous for guessing the correct number of azuki beans SupēsuGojira, 1994), Shall We Dance?, Onmyoji (2001), Zatoichi (2003), Zebraman,
in a container just by looking at it. He was murdered and his spirit became a yōkai. In The Tetsujin-28 (2005), and Sinking of Japan.

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Great Yokai War, he holds an important key to the conflict. Azuki Arai is played by popular
Kai Editor in Chief: Sata’s slick boss is played by Shiro Sano. Sano appeared in the film
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comedian and television host Takashi Okamura. He won a Rookie of the Year Blue Ribbon
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VIAward for his performance in Boys Be Ambitious (Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai, 1996) and a version of Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis and was the narrator for Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy
Popularity Award at the Japan Academy Awards for No Problem (Mou Mon Tai, 1999). He (Urutora Kyū: Dāku Fantaji, 2004) and Ultraman Max (Urutoraman Makkusu, 2005). He
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also appeared in Bayside Shakedown 2. particularly popular for his roles in the recent Godzilla films Godzilla 2000 (Gojira Ni-sen

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Mireniamu, 1999), Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
(Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidora: Daikaijū Sōkōgeki, 2001), and Godzilla: Final Wars.

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Tadashi: Actor Kanji Tsuda has appeared in several high profile films, including Fireworks
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(Hana-bi, 1997), the massive hit Bayside Shakedown (Odoru Daisōsasen, 1998), Audition,

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Ju-on (2003), Zatoichi, Masked Rider the First, and Gamera the Brave.

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