The creature in tonight's story is referred to as a shiryō. This is essentially identical to the term bōrei, which we've seen several times so far this month. The word literally means "death ghost." The significance of that is that this is the spirit of a human who has died, as opposed to the spirit
Oct 24, 2022 • Subscribe
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Our yōkai tonight is another bōrei, or ghost, although not in the traditional sense of a spooky white dead person who hunts you down and kills you. This…
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Kanshaku
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Munemushi
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A-Yokai-A-Day 2020 Lineup
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A-Yokai-A-Day 2020 Lineup
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume
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A-Yokai-A-Day: How Unshō, a Monk from Shima Province, Escaped from a Poisonous Serpent
Tonight's yōkai is another serpent like the one we saw a couple of weeks ago. Contrary to my normal pattern of leaving yōkai names untranslated, I use English…
A-Yokai-A-Day: The Bakemono in the Outhouse
Tonight's story is very short and, if I'm being honest, doesn't translate too well into English. In Japanese, the language is creepy and evocative, but translated into English…
A-Yokai-A-Day: The Yūrei of the Kirishitans
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Shōni no mushi
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Shōni no mushi
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A-Yokai-A-Day: The Nekomata of Echigo Province
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A-Yokai-A-Day: The Rokurokubi of Fuchū, Echizen Province
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A-Yokai-A-Day: The Attachment of Saigō Iyo’s Wife
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A-Yokai-A-Day: The Ghost of Honnōji Shichibyōe’s Wife
One thing I love about the stories in Shokoku hyakumonogatari is that they are so specific about the locations these stories take place. Some of them go right…
A-Yokai-A-Day: The Ao Oni of Kaga Province
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A-Yokai-A-Day: The Onryō of Abe Sōbei’s Wife
Tonight's story features an onryō, the most terrifying of all Japanese monsters. (Yes, even more terrifying than the toilet stroker!) The fear of ghosts that come back from…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 30)
If you’ve enjoyed this year’s A-Yokai-A-Day, please support me Patreon and get stories like this all year round! Happy Halloween! All good things must come to an end,…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 26)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Wealth and comfort seem to suit our mermaid well. Here she is looking as cool and composed as ever.…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 11)
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 5)
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 22)
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume (page 3)
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A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 28)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Just when all seems lost for baby-Heiji and the mermaid, a familiar pair of faces show up to save…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 20)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. A courtesan’s debut was a very big and costly event. Girls were expected to buy their dresses, beds, etc.…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 6)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Like yesterday’s page, today’s page is full of absurdities. Kyōden’s hyperbolic metaphors for the depth of love between man…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 19)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. We’ve already seen Santō Kyōden break the fourth wall a couple of times and address the readers directly. He…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 12)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. If this were a Disney story, you’d expect there to be a song by now. Well, in this scene,…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 17)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. One of the cool things about these kind of old books is that they have a rudimentary form of…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume (page 2)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. As I explained earlier, I will be presenting Hakoiri musume menya ningyo one page at a time. However, some…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 18)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Today’s illustration is another double page spread, showing the street during Uondo’s debut as an oiran. Onlookers peek out…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume (page 2)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. As I explained earlier, I will be presenting Hakoiri musume menya ningyo one page at a time. However, some…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 29)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. If you thought the story couldn’t get any weirder after yesterday’s scene, you might be surprised by today’s page.…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 14)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Pages 14 and 15 share a double page illustration. The whole spread is posted below. Notice the byōbu in…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume (page 1)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Hakoiri musume menya ningyo begins with a single-page foreword by the publisher–or so the author would have us believe.…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 16)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Today’s page features another two-spread illustration which shows a large scene in Denzō’s brothel. Business seems to be doing…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 10)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Page 10 of Hakoiri musume is a strange one because it contains a mini-story that seems to have little…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 23)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. It looks like Heiji’s plan is beginning to pay off. People are willing to pay dearly for a chance…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri Musume (page 1)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. Hakoiri musume menya ningyo begins with a single-page foreword by the publisher–or so the author would have us believe.…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 7)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. If there is anyone left who doesn’t yet think that Urashima Tarō is a jerk for cheating on Otohime…
A-Yokai-A-Day: Hakoiri musume (page 8)
If you enjoy A-Yokai-A-Day, please consider joining my Patreon. This is where our story changes timelines. Everything we’ve read so far has merely been backstory—the main character’s origin…