The Book of Japanese Folklore: An Encyclopedia of the Spirits, Monsters, and Yokai of Japanese Myth: The Stories of the Mischievous Kappa, Trickster Kitsune, Horrendous Oni, and More

Very nice book

First it arrived with water damage, after I returned book and ordered another one it was much better but still visible that it was stored in some humid place or it got some extra humidity during shipping. Need better package. Book itsels is amazing, hard cover, good paper quality, very nice pictures. It was a present for a fan of everything Japanese, he liked it a lot. As present was already given, can not add photos.

Great book that explains where the tales of various yokai come from and what they do. Nice art to go along with it all, recommend if you want to learn more about Japanese fokelore 😊

What a beautifully presented and well researched book. Ms Matsuura has done a wonderful job of explaining so many Japanese folk law monsters and spirits. It is like a dictionary of things that go bump in the night in Japan. Coming from a Christian society, there are relatively few in our world, elves, fairies and the like. Nothing too scary. Japanese animist culture has thrown up a plethora of monsters and spirits, all well explained and well illustrated. I live in Japan, a word of warning! I used to blithely bicycle back from the pub, taking a short cut over a bridge on the Yu River and biking through Nagakura shrine. Now the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. Is that a Kappa lurking in the reeds? Was that a fox spirit drifting through shadows of the dense pine forest; a ghost leaning on the tori gate? My ride back from the pub will never be the same again!

thoroughly enjoyed this book. the stories were well written and didn't feel like a textbook lecture. it was simple and written for both kids and adults to enjoy. some of the stories were ones i've read before. BUT surprisingly there were a few yokai listed that were new to me. i've read maybe a dozen or so other books on the same subject so finding new info was welcome. plus, the names also had PHONETICAL listings too. personally, out of all the books read this book and another (3 book series) are my absolute favorites. to parents and grandparents: if your kids/grandkids love POKEMON then this might be a treat for them. some of the creatures listed have POKEMON characters related to them. just so you know there are a couple with slightly more adult info to them, rating from G to PG13.