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The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. By Michael Dylan Foster. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. xix + 309, preface and acknowledgements, illustrations, notes, alphabetized list of yökai in the codex, bibliography, index. $29.95 paper.)
The Book of Yokai is a fascinating and enormously informative study of yökai, often translated as weird or mysterious creatures, monsters or fantastic beings, spirits or sprites-but in fact they are even more complex and interesting beings. Yökai are part of the folklore and popular culture of Japan and have attracted significant international attention in recent years in large part because of manga, anime, film, and gaming. In spite of the popularity of yökai, scholarly work on this subject has been limited, thus the publication of The Book of Yokai is most welcome to scholars as well as to general readers. Michael Dylan Foster has helped open up the rich world of yökai-their roots, their surroundings, and the social and historical environment that gave birth to such wonderful creatures-to an English-speaking audience.
The Book of Yokai consists of two parts. Part One, "Yökai Culture," provides a cultural history of yökai folklore and yökai studies, and explores selected concepts that...