Japanese Supernatural Tales

Flesh-eating oni demons, kappa water sprites, shapeshifting kitsune foxes, vengeful yurei ghosts - monsters and magical creatures haunt Japanese history and literature. They appear as moralistic figures in eighth-century folktales, comic relief in Edo-era kabuki plays, ghostly encounters in the storytelling game hyaku-monogatari and sinister predators in contemporary detective novels. This volume brings together an incomparable range - more than one thousand years' worth, from premodern to modern - of the most horrifying and enduring supernatural stories that have exploded in popularity in anime, video games and horror movies.

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