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Hyaku Monogatari (100 Tales)

A group of people meet for an evening of story telling. One hundred candles are lit and placed around the room where they gather. One by one, participants take turns telling scary tales, many involving yōkai, usually ghosts and monsters from Japanese folklore. After each story is told, one of the candles is extinguished. As the evening progresses, the room becomes darker and darker. Tension builds. Finally, the last tale is told, the last candle is put out. The room becomes pitch black. Something happens. Screams ring out.

Hyaku Momogatari is a parlor game that became popular in the Edo Period (1603 - 1868), and it is still fun today. Telling a full 100 tales takes hours, so the number is usually abridged. Its popularity in the Edo Period led to books with collections of scary stories, and numerous ukiyo-e were printed illustrating tales of the supernatural. The print below is one example.

Produced by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 – 1892), it depicts a battle between an ogre and a famed warrior, Minamoto "Raiko" Yorimitsu, and his followers.

Bake-danuki Yōkai

Not all yōkai are supposed to be evil or harmful. Bake-danuki, also known as tanuki, is an example. The word bake-danuki always refers to the yōkai, It literally translates to "monster racoon dog". Tanuki has a double meaning. One is another word for bake-danuki. The other meaning is the name of a real animal native to Japan. It is discussed below.

The earliest written mention of bake-danuki is in Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), published in 720 AD. It is a blend of Japanese history and mythology.

The photo above is of a popular modern statue of a bake-danuki. It is quite different from the original idea of the yōkai. The original version more closely resembled a real animal. Like kitsuni (trickster foxes), they were shape shifters and could change their appearance to steal, trick people, and even kill. Eventually their nature changed to be innocent instead of malicious. They are usually depicted standing erect on two feet, wearing a straw hat, carrying a gourd for sake, and having a big belly on which they pound like drums.

Their most distinctive physical feature, however, is an enlarged scrotum that they can expand to almost any size. There are many Edo Period (1603 - 1868) ukiyo-e of bake-danuki using their scrotums for umbrellas, clubs, fishing in place of nets, etc. They are rather tasteless, so I leave it up to you to search for them on the web if you wish.

There is a 90-year old climbing kiln there that is still among the best old kilns in Japan.

Tanuki (Nyctereutes viverrinus)

The yōkai tanuki is based on a real animal, commonly called a racoon dog. Racoon dogs are canids, a family that includes foxes, coyotes, wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs, but not racoons. There are racoon dogs species in several East Asian countries, but Nyctereutes viverrinus is unique to Japan.

They live on all of the main Japanese islands. Tanuki are omnivorous, eating rodents, lizards, frogs, fruit, berries, insects and other invertebrates, including slugs and snails. Like foxes, tanuki can climb trees. It is hunted for its fur. Some of it is used in fude, fine brushes for calligraphy and painting.

Tanuki like to live in forested areas or farmland with enough cover to feel safe. They also like to live near water.

anuki are among the very few mammals that mate for life. 

They are the only canines that lower their metabolism in the winter, entering a semi-conscious state a little but not completely like hibernation, snuggling up with their partners during that period. Males help their mates by bringing them food when they are pregnant and helping to raise their litters of pups for the four or five months after birth until they become independent.

Artwork

Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831 - 1889)

Kyōsai began his artistic career studying under ukiyo_e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798 – 1861) and later studied in the Kanō school. Soon after, he went his own way, developing a reputation as a caricaturist. Works offensive to shōgunate authorities got him arrested several times. Works following the overthrow of shōgunate rule got him arrested by the Emperor's government. He was an equal opportunity offender. The quality of his artwork has led him to be regarded as Hokusai's (1760 – 1849) greatest successor, though he never studied under him. The print below, produced in 1881, is one of the few realistic prints of tanuki I've found.