Kunio Yanagita, a scholar and folklorist who has been called the father of Japanese folklore studies, was born in this town of 20,000 people. The town has striking statues of Yokai ( supernatural ...

More than 80,000 people came to Fukusaki specifically to visit the roughly 20 yokai sculptures that can be found lounging on public benches across the town—27,000 more visitors than the previous ...

In ancient Japan, that uncanny "something" was thought to be "yokai," ghouls and hobgoblins lurking in dark and hidden places. In this bright age of digital technology, we now have a "Dr.

What do they want? The yokai send messages from the depths of forests, the darkness and the far corners of the ocean. Deities are not the only help the Japanese rely upon in times of distress and ...

In this episode of YOKAI: Exploring Japanese Folklore, we track down the legend of the ferocious Ushioni, a Yokai with the hulking body of a bull and an ogre-like face.