October 13, 2022: Your Handy Guide to Weird Yokai!

If a poor old rice farmer dies, and his indolent child(ren) sell his land for booze money, and the new owner neglects the rice fields, THEN he will rise out of the mud to haunt the area as a Dorotabo – a zombie that will not rest until the land is sold to a more capable owner.

The Seto-Taisho is a tiny porcelain warrior comprised of chipped cups, broken porcelain, and pottery shards. Its head is a sake bottle, its legs spoons, and it roams the kitchen, spoiling for battle.  Spoiler: Shattering it will only cause it to inevitably reassemble. If you’re walking along a riverbank, you may encounter a Shibaten, a bipedal cross between a monkey and a duck, who will challenge you to a wrestling match. Should you agree, you will lose all sense of time and spend the better part of the night being tossed about. The Enko is a variety of water-dwelling Kappa. Simian in appearance, they mostly frequent rivers at night. Occasionally, if they’re feeling peckish, they may enjoy a human liver by reaching up through an unwary swimmer’s rectum and helping themselves. On a rainy night, the Ame Onna may appear as a solitary old woman, drenched by the downpour. Under cover of darkness, she will steal newborn baby girls, leaving their despondent mothers to follow in her damp footsteps and become Ame Onna as well.   Art by Alessandra Baccaglini

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