What is your favourite Yōkai?

[Albwin]

I believe many readers of Manga are deeply interested in Japanese mythology, as I am too. And yōkai undoubtedly make up a great part of what makes Japanese mythology so interesting. So, what is your favourite yōkai?

My most favoured yōkai by far is the kodama, the Japanese tree sprite. And I don't mean the curious gnomes that appear in the Mononoke-hime-Movie but rather the elderly couple sweeping and raking the fallen leaves in front of their tree dwelling as drawn by Toriyama Sekien. They have such a sympathic grandparent-like atmosphere around them, have they not?

My second favourite yōkai is akaname, you know, that red-colored, long-tongued fellow who goes in bathhouses to lick the bathtubs clean. It simply has a bizarre form of cuteness and it is likely the very yōkai I would preferably accept in my home, since its presence means that I won't have to clean my bathroom by myself ever again.
Although I have just read that in current times akaname is believed to have poisonous saliva. That was it then with the nice bathroom cleaner. It's better to do it myself than getting poisoned after all. But delightfully bizarre akaname remains nonetheless.

 

[ABCsOfLife]

I often see something related to it, so I guess my favorite is "Yuki onna" because they are very cool.
And my second favorite is "Zashiki warashi" because I hear they bring luck on your household.

 

[Xzayer]

I thought that umibozu looked cool.

 

[PantsMan]

Zashiki Warashi and Tsukumogami are probably up there amongst my favorites. I like the animism of it, with particularly cherished or discarded objects coming to life to either bring good luck or curse their owners. Any yokai that can be friendly or bring good luck to humans is also always a plus.

My favorite type of story featuring a yokai is however the okuri-inu, the Following Dogs.

Black dogs accompanying you from a distance when travelling in the dead of night, waiting for you to stumble or trip so they can devour you. However, if you are to do so, you can trick them by pretending you are just sitting down to rest, which they will politely oblige and wait for you to "catch your breath". Once you make it to your destination, though, it is good form to thank them and leave some food outside the door for them, as they ironically keep you safe by scaring away other wolves and evil spirits while stalking you on your journey.

It's such a good and distinctly Japanese type of foklore story, where even monsters recognize and tend to be generally polite, to the point that politeness and good form are almost like some kind of magic ritual to protect against the supernatural. I love that kind of stuff.

 

[Arantir]

I often see something related to it, so I guess my favorite is "Yuki onna" because they are very cool.

quite a punny person aren't you

 

[Bainhardt]

Definitely rokurokubi, although not for any particularly compelling reason. I read a couple manga with rokurokubi characters (Kanojo wa Rokurokubi, Mononoke Sharing) and now I just really enjoy how ridiculous they are. Like, they're not even very scary, and they barely even seem spiritual or otherworldly at all. They're great.

 

[421cookies]

Is Shachiku-san a kind of youkai? If yes then she's definitely my favorite

 

[Albwin]

She is a yūrei, a ghost, and thus no yōkai in the strict sense of the word. But seeing as Toriyama Sekien included the yūrei in his famous 1776 collection of yōkai pictures I believe it counts nonetheless.

 

[PantsMan]

@Albwin I beg to differ. Ghost stories are completely separate from yokai folklore, in my opinion, even though both are staples of supernatural horror. There are plenty of stories that start with people who turn into yokai and yokai that are born from dead people. Generic, vengeful ghosts in particular aren't yokai, though.

 

[Albwin]

@PantsMan I agree that yūrei and yōkai aren't the same, just as sure as fairies and ghosts in Anglo-Celtic mythology might both be spirits and might both even be thought to be dead people but aren't the same and never will be. I nonetheless decided to let it count, and if only out of respect for Toriyama Sekien's awesome artworks where, like mentioned above, a yūrei is included among yōkai (as is a shiryō and an ikiryō for that matter) despite being ill-fitting under mythological regards.

 

[Sem]

( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡° )




I'm pretty fond of Komasan.

Spoiler

 

[Menreikill]

Hi. Touhoufag here. And my favorite youkai would be undoubtedly Hata no Kokoro, a menreiki. A sub-species of tsukumogami made from abandoned Noh masks.

 

[Garakuta]

Fatefag here. For me it would be Osakabe-hime, a youkai living in Himeji Castle, that is, while being shy of people, acting in favor of the castle. In general I like human-like yokai more than the others, as I think, that non-human things being able to transform into humans brings a whole other side to their mystery.

 

[PantsMan]

@Garakuta

non-human things being able to transform into humans brings a whole other side to their mystery.

What a roundabout way of saying "I like them 'cause they're hot".

 

[RedInACup]

That umbrella cyclops that has a sandal on its leg.

 

[Garakuta]

@PantsMan
yougotmethere.jpg

 

[Albwin]

@RedInACup
That's (kara)kasa-(o)bake, a kind of umbrella tsukumogami.

 

[RedInACup]

Thank you for providing a name. I always forget it.

 

[bigtiddyoneesan]

Halloween Necro Festival 2020

Oh hey, this thread has a pretty high spoop level.