Curious Ordinary

Because Japan is surrounded by ocean there are many legends of ghost ships in Japanese folklore. One supernatural phenomenon is known as mayoibune, which translates as 'wandering ship,' and it involves ghostly ships that appear on moonlit nights during the Obon holiday.

There is a strange Japanese tale from Shikoku Island about a fisherman named Yazaimon and a giant octopus. One day a giant octopus was having a sleep on a rock just off the coast of Kagawa. Yazaimon saw it there and thought how delicious it would be, so he climbed up on the rock and cut off one of the octopus's legs while it was sleeping.

In Japanese folklore basan are a rare nocturnal bird yokai found only in the mountains of Ehime Prefecture. They resemble a very large chicken with a bright red comb and luminous feathers. Most remarkably they breathe a ghostly fire from their mouths which is cold rather than hot.

In Japanese folklore there is a figure known as jakotsu baba, which is sometimes translated as the old snake bone woman. She is a yokai, or supernatural creature, who appears as an old hag and has the power to control snakes.

In Japanese folklore it is believed that bodies of water often have a nushi, or guardian spirit, which can take various forms including dragons, snakes and many others. Joren Falls on the Izu Peninsula has a drop of 250 meters into a deep dark blue pool at the base and many visitors report feeling uneasy when viewing it.

In Japanese folklore there is a giant spider yokai known as jorogumo. It is believed that when a regular golden orb spider reaches 400 years of age it can develop supernatural powers including the ability to shapeshift. At this time it also chooses to eat humans instead of its regular diet of insects.

In Japanese folklore there is a tale known as The Fox Barber. In a village in Tottori Prefecture there lived a fox named Oton who loved to bewitch people and shave their heads. The leader of the village called a meeting and offered a reward to anyone who was willing to try and defeat the mischievous fox once and for all.

The Butterfly Lovers is considered one of China’s four great folktales. Set in the Eastern Jin dynasty, it tells the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Zhu was the only daughter of a wealthy family. Despite living in a time when women were not allowed to study, she convinced her father to let her attend classes disguised as a man.

In Japanese folklore, rokurokubi are yokai that appear as regular women but with the curious ability to extend their necks. There are actually two types of rokurokubi, one whose neck is able to stretch out to an extraordinary length and wander around while the body is sleeping.

Abe no Seimei was a famous onmyoji, a Japanese magician and diviner for the imperial court in the Heian period. As an onmyoji, Seimei practiced onmyodo (meaning 'the way of yin and yang') a form of Japanese occultism based on Chinese five element theory. It involved magic, divination and spiritual protection and had an important role in Japan before eventually becoming prohibited in the mid 19th century.

In Japanese folklore, inugami is a type of spirit possession in the form of a dog familiar. These yokai are created by powerful sorcerers and remain in a family for generations. They are capable of doing the bidding of their masters, often committing terrible deeds on their behalf. They are also able to possess others, causing serious illness and even death. 

In Japanese folklore, there is a yokai known as tatarimokke, which translates as cursed infant. A tatarimokke appears just like an ordinary owl but is actually the spirit of a dead baby or young child. These yokai remain close to the home of the family with whom they lived while alive.

In Japanese mythology, Ukemochi is a goddess of food and because food is so important for survival, she is still worshipped today alongside Amaterasu at the Ise Shrine. In one myth, she invites the god Tsukuyomi to attend a feast.  When he arrived, the goddess produced the food for the feast from her body.