#youkaiart

The bakeneko is a type of Japanese yōkai, or supernatural creature. According to its name, it is a cat that has changed into a yōkai.

Nure-onna is a yōkai which resembles an amphibious creature with the head of a woman and the body of a snake.  She carries with her a small, childlike bundle, which she uses to attract potential victims. If a well-intentioned person offers to hold the baby for her, the Nure-onna will let them. If they attempt to discard the bundle, however, it is revealed that it is not a child at all. Instead, the bundle becomes incredibly heavy and prevents the victim from fleeing. She then uses her long, snake-like tongue to suck all the blood from her victim’s body. In other stories, a Nure-onna is simply seeking solitude as she washes her hair and reacts violently to those who bother her.

14: Inugami is a spiritual possession by the spirit of a dog, widely known about in western Japan. Inugami become more easily attached to people who are wildly unstable in emotions. Those who get possessed by it (those who get an inugami attached to them) are said to feel pain in their chest, complain about pain in their arms and feet, suddenly sway without warning, and bark like a dog. They would enter and invade the human body from the ears, and it’s said that those who get possessed by these would develop a personality full of jealousy.

Funayūrei are vengeful ghosts believed to use ladles to fill boats with water and make them sink. They are said to be the remnants of people who have died in shipwrecks and are attempting to cause humans to join them

Baku are Japanese supernatural beings that devour dreams and nightmares. According to legend, they were created by the spare pieces that were left over when the gods finished creating all other animals. 

Datsue-ba is an old woman who sits at the edge of the Sanzu River in the Buddhist underworld. At the river, she has two primary duties. When a soul is that of an adult, Datsue-ba forces the sinners to take off their clothes, and the old-man Keneō hangs these clothes on a riverside branch that bends to reflect the gravity of the sins. If the sinner arrives with no clothes, Datsu-ba strips them of their skin.

Hitodama are believed in Japanese folklore to the souls of the newly dead, taking form as mysterious fiery apparitions. Most Hitodama fade away or fall to the ground shortly after being spotted.

01: Amabie is a legendary Japanese mermaid or merman with 3 legs, who allegedly emerges from the sea and prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic.