Japanese folklore

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Japanese folklore

The folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
is heavily influenced by both Shinto

Shinto

is the former state religion of Japan and remains the most common name for the nation's non-Buddhist ethnic religion practices. It was formed from disparate local mythologies, beginning with the Kojiki of 712, into an imperial cult called State Shinto that solidified in the Meiji period....
and Buddhism

Buddhism in Japan

The history of Buddhism in Japan can be roughly divided into three periods, namely the Nara period , the Heian Period and the post-Heian period ....
, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In the Buddhist context, a bodhisattva means either "enlightened existence " or "enlightenment-being" or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment "....
, kami
Kami

is the Japanese language word for the spirits within objects in the Shinto faith. The oldest surviving record of their creation is in the Kojiki of 712....
(gods and revered spirits), yokai
Yokai

are a class of obake, creatures in Japanese folklore ranging from the evil Oni to the mischievous kitsune or snow woman Yuki-onna....
(monster-spirits) (such as oni, kappa, and tengu
Tengu

are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, Japanese art, Japanese theater and Japanese literature. They are one of the best known yokai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami ....
), yurei
Yurei

are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, wikt:? , meaning "faint" or "dim" and wikt:? , meaning "soul" or "spirit." Alternative names include ?? meaning ruined or departed spirit, ?? meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing ?? or ??? ....
(ghosts), dragons

Japanese dragon

Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and Japanese folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India....
, and animals with supernatural powers such as the kitsune
Kitsune

Foxes and human beings lived in close proximity in ancient Japan; this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures. Kitsune have become closely associated with Inari , a Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as his messengers....
(fox), tanuki
Tanuki

is the Japanese language word for the Japanese Raccoon Dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times. The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded....
(raccoon dog), mujina
Mujina

is an old Japanese language term primarily referring to the Eurasian Badger. In some regions the term refers instead to the Japanese raccoon dog or to introduced Masked Palm Civet....
(badger), and bakeneko
Bakeneko

A is, in Japanese folklore, a cat with supernatural abilities akin to those of the kitsune or tanuki. A cat may become a bakeneko in a number of ways: it may reach a certain age, be kept for a certain number of years, grow to a certain size, or be allowed to keep a long tail....
(transforming cat).

Japanese folklore is often divided into several categories: "mukashibanashi," tales of long ago; "namidabanashi", sad stories; "obakebanashi", ghost stories; "ongaeshibanashi", stories of repaying kindness; "tonchibanashi", witty stories; "waraibanashi", funny stories; and "yokubaribanashi", stories of greed.

Some well-known Japanese folktales and legends include:

The folklore of Japan has been influenced by foreign literature.

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Encyclopedia

Shinto

Buddhism in Japan

Bodhisattva

Japanese dragon

The story of Kintaro
Kintaro

is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a Yama-uba on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching the terror of the region around Mount Ooe, Shutendouji, he became a loyal follower of Minamoto no Yorimitsu under the new name ....
, the superhuman Golden Boy.
The story of Momotaro
Momotaro

is a popular hero from Japanese folklore. His name literally means Peach Taro; as Taro is a common Japanese boy's name, it is often translated as Peach Boy....
, the oni-slaying Peach Boy.
The story of Urashima Taro
Urashima Taro

The legend of is a Japanese legend about a fishermen who rescues a turtle and for this is rewarded with a visit to the Palace of the Dragon, or Ryugu-jo....
, who rescued a turtle and visited the bottom of the sea.
The story of Issun-boshi, the One-inch Boy.
Bunbuku Chagama
Bunbuku Chagama

Bunbuku Chagama is a Japanese folktale about a raccoon-dog, or tanuki, that uses its shapeshifting powers to reward its rescuer for his kindness....
, the story of a teakettle which is actually a shape-changing tanuki.
The story of the wicked fox-woman Tamamo-no-Mae.
Shita-kiri Suzume
Shita-kiri Suzume

Shita-kiri Suzume , translated literally into "Tongue-Cut Sparrow", is a traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow....
, the story of the tongue-cut sparrow.
The story of the vengeful Kiyohime
Kiyo

According to Japanese mythology, was the daughter of a village headman or landlord named Shouji, on the Hidaka riverbank. The family was wealthy enough to entertain and provide lodging for traveling priests, who often passed by on their way to a shrine famous for ascetic practices....
, who became a dragon.
Bancho Sarayashiki
Bancho Sarayashiki

is a kaidan of love separated by social class, and broken trust and promises that ultimately lead to a dismal fate.The story of Okiku and the Nine Plates is one of the most famous in Japanese folklore, and continues to resonate with audiences today....
, the ghost story of Okiku and the Nine Plates.
Yotsuya Kaidan
Yotsuya Kaidan

Yotsuya Kaidan , the story of Oiwa and Tamiya Iemon, is a tale of betrayal, murder and onryou. Arguably the most famous Kaidan of all time, it has been adapted for film over 30 times, and continues to be an influence on j-horror today....
, the ghost story of Oiwa.
Kachi-kachi Yama
Kachi-kachi Yama

Kachi-Kachi Yama , is one of the few Japanese folktales in which a tanuki is the villain, rather than the boisterous and well-endowed alcoholic....
, the story of a villainous Tanuki
Tanuki

is the Japanese language word for the Japanese Raccoon Dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times. The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absent-minded....
and a heroic rabbit.
Hanasaka Jiisan
Hanasaka Jiisan

Hanasaka Jiisan is a Japanese fairy tale. Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford collected it in Tales of Old Japan, as The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom....
, the story of the old man that made the flowers bloom
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a 10th century Japanese folklore, also known as The Tale of Princess Kaguya . It is considered the oldest extant Japanese literature....
, about a mysterious girl called Kaguya-hime who is said to be from the capital of the moon.

The folklore of Japan has been influenced by foreign literature. Some stories of ancient India

Ancient India

Ancient India may refer to:*The ancient History of India, which generally includes the ancient history of the whole Indian subcontinent ...
were influential in shaping Japanese stories by providing them with materials. India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n materials were greatly modified and adapted in such a way as would appeal to the sensibilities of common people of Japan in general.

The monkey stories of Japanese folklore have been influenced both by the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
epic

Indian epic poetry

Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil language and Hindi, it includes some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture....
Ramayana and the Chinese

Chinese literature

Chinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese....
classic The Journey to the West. The stories mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka

Jataka

The Jataka Tales also known in other languages refer to a voluminous body of folklore-like literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Gotama Buddha....
tales appears in a modified form in throughout the Japanese collection of popular stories.

In the middle years of the twentieth century storytellers would often travel from town to town telling these stories with special paper illustrations called kamishibai

Kamishibai

Kamishibai , literally "paper drama", is a form of storytelling that originated in Japanese Buddhist temples in the 12th century, where monks used emaki to convey stories with moral lessons to a mostly illiterate audience....
.

Japanese folklore

See also