Ashworth-Jinmenken

Introduction of Yokai and the Jinmenken

Yokai are creatures of the night. They are the cause of many supernatural occurrences in Japan. They appear in literature, folklore, and urban legends. They can keep you up at night. They come out in the twilight time ready to do their business. They can explain events that take place in this world: such as the creation of the world. They can be ghosts searching for revenge. They can be demons who prey upon women. They could be women who lust and obsess over men. They can take the place of shapeshifters, monsters, and some may even appear in human form at times. Some may be animalistic. The origins of yokai can take you back so many years, with lots of the popularity taking place during the Edo Period. There are many outlets that yokai take place in. They are used in films, novels, anime, manga, cartoons, video games and so much more. They are a source of entertainment of many in Japan and they are a reality for the people who live in Japan. They are more than just stories for these people. Many of the people truly believe in these mythical creatures.

One of these peculiar yokai is the Jinmenken. It takes an animalistic form and its origins come from urban legends and word of mouth. It originated in the Edo Period and its fame comes from the media outlets at the time. The Jinmenken is still relevant in modern culture as a character on a TV show and it even has a board game surrounding him. He can be known as either frightening or humourous, and it all depends on who is telling the tale. He is peculiar, whitty and often wants to be left alone. He is kind of left out in the world of Yokai with very little information present about him, but that adds to the mystery of his nature. It is all word of mouth and does not have any work of literature to give credit to its roots. He is very mysterious and adds to the wonder of it all. Many people believe he is actually a real creature who wanders around the streets, and there is a hazy line between reality and fantasy. He is definitely a story to tell the little ones so they do not go out at night (Foster 226).

Personality/Physical Characteristics

The physical appearance of the Jinmenken is a cross between dog and human. It can look humorous or terrifying. It is fluffy and looks much like a dog. It is the size of a medium sized dog, but when he turns around and looks at you he is no dog. He contains a human face. This human face is not an attractive one and can be thought of as nerving. This is definitely a sight to see, especially in the liminal space of a dark alley at the time of night. It is enough to frighten someone who is just casually walking in the streets and catch sight of him. His image is creepy and enough to give small children nightmares. He is definitely a decent tale to tell young children to stay off the streets at night. No small child wants to think they have come across a cute dog to have actually see this yokai. That is a surprise that no average adult wants to experience, let alone a small child.

The Jinmenken personality is far from friendly. He is known for being grumpy, but wouldn’t anyone be grumpy if they were cross between dog and human? He has no peers to confide in, and humans do not give him the attention that they would give to a normal dog. They do not find him cute or cuddly, and frankly just find him amusing. This does not amuse this creature. He has the ability to speak simple conversations and will usually bluntly tell you to go away. Although his blunt nature may seem intimidating and nerving, he does not actually pose any danger to the innocent bystander. No one has ever reported an attack from a Jinmenken, only multiple sightings. This is easing to know because many people have actually reported sighting him in the streets at night so although they may fear him, there is no danger when coming across him. He is just a depressed creature with no friends and nothing going for him.

The Jinmenken: An Urban Legend

Jinmenken are different in from other yokai in that the legend of the Jinmenken is spread purely by word of mouth. There were no origins from literature. This makes the Jinmenken an urban legend, much like Bigfoot. Google’s definition of an urban legend is “a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely related or known to the teller.” Urban legends in Japan contain lots of horror such as ghosts and haunted tales. The Japanese are known for their creepy tales so it makes sense that they have many urban legends. The Jinmenken does work with the definition google gave for an urban legend. It can be seen as humorous and it can be seen as horrific. It is also spread as a true story, for many people claim to have seen him. The Jinmenken is a really big urban legend in Japan that has outbursts at certain times.

The urban legend of the Jinmenken goes a little like this. Imagine casually walking the streets at night time. In the streets, you look to see what looks like a small dog. You feel a pang of pity for this dog because it must be cold in this weather. Then you walk up to this small dog for a closer work and then he turns around and behold, this little dog has a human face. The sight causes you to make a double take. This can not be real, or can it? Are your eyes betraying you? Then a sense of fear and confusion over this unknown creature causes you to run away. Once arriving back to the life of normalcy, you then have to spread what you saw to every media outlet you know. Everyone must be aware of this abnormal creature you caught sight of that dark creepy night in the streets of Japan. The whole world needs to know and make a big fuss over it because it happened and was real. This whole fiasco of a tale is what I imagine the beginning of the telling of the urban legend of the Jinmenken may have looked like.

With urban legends comes the theories of explanations on why these urban legends are what they are. There are just always so many questions. Why are there half dog half human creatures roaming the streets at night? What is the reasoning behind their existence? There is the common theory that occurs with most odd creatures. That being that they are failed science experiments gone astray. When worst comes to worst we always tend to blame the scientists and their failed experiments. Another interesting theory of how these yokai came to be is that they are the spirits of traffic accident victims. This theory probably came from the fact that they roam the streets at the night. The Japanese are also very into the idea of restless spirits searching for revenge. Luckily these creatures do not actively look for revenge but they are just absently walking with no destination in mind (Swancer).

A Look into the Past

A famous type carnival during the Edo Period was called a Misemono. They were much like carnivals we know today, with performances and many odd specimen (Markus 499). Of these odd specimen, was our Jinmenken. In 1810 it was reported that a human-faced puppy was put on display at one of these shows. (Foster 226). They were displayed through taxidermy and sometimes they would even exhibit the creatures live. How did they do this? There are theories that for the taxidermy that altered a dead dog to look like that of a Jinmenken. There also may have been a creature that kind of looked like it had a human face. Also who knows? Maybe the Jinmenken was a real creature and they really did display him at these carnivals. There is no way to know for sure. What was known for sure is that these attractions were popular among people. Who would not want to see the half dog and half human yokai that has been the talk of Japan? It would definitely be a popular attraction if they still held them today.

Jinmenken were known to be sited during the Edo period around the years 1603-1868 (Swancer). Many locals had been known to cite him on the streets. They would then publish them to their news outlets at the time. This was the time of written news, so that was the quickest way to share this news with others. These news stories would spread to the people in the area so everyone would become alert to the fact that there was a half human half dog yokai wandering around. This word of mouth spread of this creature would probably add to rumors and I would think false sightings would occur. When one person says they see something, suddenly everyone sees it. This is not actual fact, but the way human nature/rumors spread, it is probably safe to say that some of these stories were exaggerated. These exaggerations are probably what made the Jinmenken first famous.

There seems to have been a downfall in the rumors for some time, but in 1989 there was a recurrence of these sightings. At this time, the media was way more than the written press. The media now contained magazines and tv outlets. These media outlets allowed the legend of the Jinmenken spread farther and wider. In the Book of Yokai, Foster makes the statement that “Perhaps because of their propulsion through mass media rather than by word of mouth, stories about jinmenken never became complex and seem to have been more for comic effect that out of belief or fear- at least among adults” (227).The media used the jinmenken as a joke among the people. It was something to get the school children worked up, but something for the adults to laugh about. It became a good story among the people at the time and it was a media success. The story never became complicated and was just what it was: this unpleasant creature roaming around in the dark of night. Besides the theories spoken about before, there is no true backstory to this creature.

The Presence of the Media

The common denominator of the two outbursts of the jinmenken was the presence of the media. The media is what gave the jinmenken the fame it got. The second outburst was much bigger because of modern media being more accessible to more people. In the Edo Period news traveled through the written press. In the 1980’s news spread through so many platforms: radio, TV, magazines, newspapers. The media is responsible for what makes people talk. The media blows up stories about different events and twists it with their angle to make it more interesting. This remains true for the story of the jinmenken. The news made this story humorous so that the people had something to laugh about. It was fun to make believe and think about. There probably were people who believed in this yokai, but many made it into a joke for comedy reasons.

Jinmenken in Modern Times

The jinmenken is relevant in more modern times as well. One example is the cartoon Yokai Watch. This show displays different types of yokai and has storylines for them. This show has a jinmenken character whose name is Manjimutt. The name probably comes from the mix of the words man and mutt. This character is pretty ugly and has a downer personality, much like the description of this yokai. His storyline is that he was once an average businessman who got laid off. On his way home there was a poodle, and he bumped into a pile of wood planks. When the planks fell on him, his spirit merged with that of the poodle creating the jinmenken like half dog half human yokai. His character is different than those of the other yokai, for humans can see him. This is probably due to the fact that his fame comes from sightings by humans. This gives him low self esteem and he is still treated like a human in the real world although he has a dog body (Yokai Watch).

Another application of the Jinmenken in modern times is that there is is a board game with the jinmenken as the theme around it. It is sold in the Japan Trend Shop online and it is called Jinmenken Haunted School Escape Game. The concept of this game is to make your way around the creepy school board while the jinmenken is chasing you. The players must collect some matching items to escape the school and eventually to win. This game shows that the jinmenken is still present in the modern world. It is used as entertainment in the world of board games. This application of the jinmenken is supposed to present a scarier form of this creature because the players are literally being chased by the jinmenken. This interpretation of the yokai is a lot different than most because the jinmenken is a harmless creature and would never chase a child in a haunted school. Everything has different interpretations though so this is just a different one. (Japan Trend Shop)

Michael Foster presents a theory that a character from Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978 may have been inspiration for the outburst of the jinmenken in the late eighties and nineties. In this movie there is a character of a dog with the face of a man. It is super realistic and probably what a real life jinmenken would look like. It has a very vivid human face and a very vivid dog body. It is never called a jinmenken in the movie because it was an American film, and the filmmakers probably did not know about this yokai. Although maybe they did, and the jinmenken could have been inspiration for that character. There is no mention of it, but one can never know what inspires creators. If it was not inspired by the jinmenken, it is pretty neat that they would come up with the same idea as this Japanese urban legend. It really does show how small this world is with all these similar ideas (Foster 227).

Closing Thoughts

Overall the jinmenken is a fascinating creature and definitely under appreciated in the world of yokai. He is unique and although grouchy, very humorous yet scary. All these perspectives in one make him very interesting. His legend will probably live on for centuries and maybe one day there will be another outburst of sightings in Japan. Maybe there will also be more uses of the jinmenken in the media in the future. Maybe one day they will actually capture a real life jinmenken and all those who found him a humorous legend will have to take back the laughs. The world is so big that nothing is actually impossible. That being said, be careful roaming the streets at night. You never know what you may run into.

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