Yokai featured in Monster Matsuri

Watch out adventure lovers! Takeshita Demons 3, Monster Matsuri, is out!!

I’ve blogged before on yokai demons featured in book one  and book two of the Takeshita Demons series, so…who should we look out for in Monster Matsuri?

Yokai featured in Takeshita Demons: Monster Matsuri

Akaname (Filth Licker) 垢嘗
Great news: if you don’t clean your bathroom, the akaname will. He has frog-like skin, a long hairy tongue, and a fondness for slime, mould and rot. He likes to lick grimy bathrooms until they sparkle.

Ama-no-jyaku  (Demon of Heaven) 天邪鬼
This tiny ogre loves confusion and hate, and he’ll go out of his way to create it.  He can read your deepest desires and will twist his words to lead you in the opposite direction to that which you desire.

Boroboro-ton (Battered futon) 暮露々々団
Remember that old quilt you’ve had for years and never washed? Well, by now it could be haunted. If it shuffles around the room by itself, watch out: the only cure is a good wash and full sun to dry.

Harionago (Barbed woman) 針女子
She’s beautiful and she loves to laugh, but her hair has a mind of its own. Each strand is tipped with a deadly barb and can reach through the air to capture its prey.

Hitodama (Human souls) 人魂
When a person dies, their spirit can soar to the sky in the form of a fireball. Eventually, when the fireball falls back to earth, it splatters everything in slime. The fireballs can be orange or blue or white and often appear just before a sick person dies.

Kara-kasa (Paper umbrella) 唐傘
Make sure you are kind to your umbrella! If you’re not, it could turn into a kara-kasa and hop around your house all day on its hairy leg. Umbrellas love to blow raspberries.

Kitsune (Fox) 狐
Young kitsune look like ordinary foxes, but the older they are, the more tails they grow, and the more powerful they become. When they have lived for a hundred years, they can change shape, even into human form. White foxes are linked to Inari, the god of rice. The fox’s favourite food is fried tofu.

Mokumokuren (Connected eyes) 目々連
Even walls can have eyes! Battered Japanese shōji (paper sliding walls) can be haunted by dozens of eyeballs. Don’t stare at them for too long: you can go blind.

Nukekubi (Cut-throat) 抜首
During the day you might mistake this yōkai for a normal person, but be warned. At night, while its body is sleeping, its head can detach and fly around hunting for delicious things to eat (like children and puppy dogs).

Nurarihyon (Slippery strange) ぬらりひょん
He’s bald, he likes to drink tea, and his head is enormous. Said to be the Leader of all yōkai, Nurarihyon can summon shockwaves of power with a flick of his fingers.

Nurikabe (Plastered wall) ぬりかべ
An invisible wall that blocks the path of those who approach it. If you try to walk around it, you’ll be walking a long time: the wall can extend forever.

Tsukumogami (Lost thing) 付喪神
Ever do a big clean and toss out all the things you no longer want? Beware! In a hundred years, they might spring up to seek their revenge. Tools, clothing, weapons, furniture…You name it, they can become tsukumogami.

Sagari (Hanging horse-head) 下がり
With sharp teeth and bloodshot eyes, this bizarre yōkai is a horse’s head that hangs upside-down like a bat. Usually found in trees, sagari love to drop on you unexpectedly.

Satori (Mind reader) 覚
He looks like a monkey, he smells like a monkey, and he eats like a monkey. But he can also read your thoughts.

Uwan (Disembodied voice) うわん
Usually nothing more than a sound, the uwan can be heard from inside an old building, but not from outside.

Yuki-onna (Snow Woman) 雪女
Tall, pale and icily beautiful, this yōkai is a spirit of the snow. She leaves no footprints, preferring to float above the ground, and she can disappear in a puff of cold mist.

Zashiki-warashi (House ghost) 座敷童
This mischievous yōkai haunts houses and usually appears in the shape of a child. If your house is haunted by a zashiki-warashi, count yourself lucky, but don’t forget to take good care of it. If your house ghost ever chooses to leave you, your luck will quickly end.

Do you have a favourite yōkai? If so, let me know…

Cheers and scary reading!

 

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Yokai featured in The Filth Licker

Woo hoo! Book three, Monster Matsuri, is out!!

Which reminds me…I’ve blogged before on yokai demons featured in book one of the Takeshita Demons series, but what about the others?

Let’s start with book two…

With a name like The Filth Licker, you’ve got to expect at least one akaname to make an appearance. (And you’d be right! )

But who else is there?

Yokai featured in Takeshita Demons: The Filth Licker

Akaname (Filth Licker) 垢嘗
Great news: if you don’t clean your bathroom, the akaname will. He has frog-like skin, a long hairy tongue, and a fondness for slime, mould and rot. He likes to lick grimy bathrooms until they sparkle.

Ashi-magari (Leg turner) 足曲がり
The ashi-magari is a mischievous spirit that comes out at night to trip you up and slow you down. You might feel it winding around your ankles, or tugging at your legs, like the tail of an invisible animal.

Betobeto-san (Mr Footsteps) べとべとさん
Ever had the feeling that someone was following you? Or have you heard footsteps but turned around to see noone was there? Perhaps it was Betobeto-san, trying to get past you. He’s quite shy, so try standing to the side of the road and inviting him to go ahead.

Hitodama (Human souls) 人魂
If a person dies, their spirit can soar to the sky in the form of a fireball. When the fireball falls back to earth, it splatters everything in slime. Hitodama can be orange or blue or white, and often appear just before a sick person passes away.

Kama itachi (Sickle Weasels) 鎌鼬
Whirling with the winds and slicing through the night, the Sickle Weasels work in teams of three to slash at their enemies using long sickle blades that extend from their paws.

Keukegen (Fluffy Thing) 毛羽毛現
Small and fluffy doesn’t always equal cute and friendly. A keukegen looks like a small, furry dog, but it spreads disease and prefers to live in dark, damp places. When written with different characters, keukegen can also mean “an unusual thing that is rarely seen” (希有怪訝).

Kitsune (Fox) 狐
Young kitsune look like ordinary foxes, but the older they are, the more tails they grow, and the more powerful they become. When they have lived for a hundred years, they can change shape, even into human form. White foxes are linked to Inari, the god of rice. The fox’s favourite food is fried tofu.

Kodama (Tree Spirit) 木魂
Kodama live inside ancient trees, mimicking the sounds of the forest and causing echoes to bounce through the woods. Their trees are often ringed with a sacred rope called a shimenawa. If you cut down a kodama’s tree, you’re in for some very bad luck.

Oni (Ogre) 鬼
Oni are famous for their mean looks and nasty personalities. They have bad hair, poor dress sense and spiky horns. And they like to eat people, which makes them very unpopular.

Satori (literally: Consciousness) 覚
He looks like a monkey, he smells like a monkey, and he eats like a monkey. But he can also read your thoughts. The satori prefers to live in the mountains and can only be conquered if you empty your mind.

Suna-kake-baba (Sand-throwing woman) 砂かけ婆
Living high in the treetops of a lonely forest, the suna-kake-baba is a grumpy old lady who sprinkles sand on people as they walk by underneath.

Tofu kozo (Tofu monk) 豆腐小僧
Beware, hungry traveler: The tofu kozo is a young monk who wanders quiet country roads carrying a plate of fresh tofu. Although it looks delicious, often garnished with a maple leaf, the tofu is cursed, and those who eat it will start to rot.

Yamabiko (Ghostly valley echo) 幽谷響
Don’t you hate it when someone echoes everything you say? Don’t you hate it when someone echoes everything you say? That’s exactly what the yamabiko does. It lives in the mountains and pretends to be a real echo. Not very helpful. Not very helpful.

Stay posted for a sneak preview of the yokai featured in Monster Matsuri…

Cheers and scary reading!

 

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There’s a tanuki in the classroom! Japanese language learning and yokai demons

The Hyogo Centre's Melissa Luyke with professional actor Shingo Usami in disguise as a tanuki.

Creative language teaching ideas

Today I was at the Hyogo Prefectural Cultural Government Centre as part of a series of workshops organised by Ms Yuko Fujimitsu, Japanese Language Advisor for the Department of Education as part of the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP).

We worked with Year 9 students from three schools (including my own school, Leeming Senior High School!) and spent the entire day in a Japanese environment…

…speaking Japanese, eating Japanese, thinking about Japanese geography and culture.

Yokai wall of fame

And that’s where I was lucky enough to come in, because a big part of Japan’s culture is its mythology, history and folklore, showcased very nicely in some of Japan’s ghost stories and yokai tales.

Language learning through art, literature and drama

There was a big emphasis on new or different teaching techniques and ideas for introducing ordinary grammar into the classroom.

The day’s activities included:

Tanukis love to use their large bellies as drums. I'm using mine to grow a baby, but still, Tanuki Shingo's belly is bigger!

- watching GeGeGe no Kitaro (perhaps the most famous yokai in the world) fight the awesome gyuuki (or ushi-oni).

- folding and pinning origami leaves onto a money tree (for donation to the Pray for Japan cause),

- language learning through drama (led by actor Shingo Usami), art (using the Art Speaks Japanese language resource kit put out by the Japan Foundation Sydney), and literature (me and some of the Takeshita Demons)

- Japanese story-telling and song-singing

- Lots of practise in listening and speaking Japanese, especially when it came to lunchtime (no polite request for a bento box lunch in Japanese = no bento box lunch!)

It was a great day and we have more schools coming tomorrow…

がんばりまーす！

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Japanese ghost stories: of a mirror and a bell

Born on Greek island in 1850, Lafcadio Hearn was quite the traveller, living in Ireland, the U.S., and the West Indies before settling in Japan.

Lafcadio Hearn, also known as Koizumi Yakumo, was a journalist best known for Kwaidan, his book of super-spooky Japanese ghost stories.

Hearn’s ghost story “Of a mirror and a bell” appears in Kwaidan and is a spooky tale of curses and regret.

“Of a mirror and a bell” is reproduced below…
ENJOY!

OF A MIRROR AND A BELL, from Kwaidan
by Lafcadio Hearn

Eight centuries ago, the priests of Mugenyama, in the province of Totomi, wanted a big bell for their temple; and they asked the women of their parish to help them by contributing old bronze mirrors for bell-metal.

There was at that time a young woman, a farmer’s wife, living at Mugenyama, who presented her mirror to the temple, to be used for bell-metal. But afterwards she much regretted her mirror.

She remembered things that her mother had told her about it; and she remembered that it had belonged not only to her mother, but to her mother’s mother and grandmother; and she remembered some happy smiles which it had reflected.

Of course, if she could have offered the priests a certain sum of money in place of the mirror, she could have asked them to give back her heirloom. But she had not the money necessary.

Whenever she went to the temple, she saw her mirror lying in the courtyard, behind a railing, among hundreds of other mirrors heaped there together. She knew it by the Sho-Chiku-Bai in relief on the back of it: the three lucky emblems of Pine, Bamboo, and Plumflower, which delighted her baby-eyes when her mother first showed her the mirror.

She longed for some chance to steal the mirror, and hide it, that she might thereafter treasure it always. But the chance did not come; and she became very unhappy, feeling as if she had foolishly given away a part of her life.

She thought about the old saying that “a mirror is the soul of a woman”, and she feared that it was true in weirder ways than she had before imagined. But she did not dare to speak of her pain to anybody.

Now, when all the mirrors contributed for the Mugenyama bell had been sent to the foundry, the bell-founders discovered that there was one mirror among them which would not melt.

Again and again they tried to melt it; but it resisted all their efforts. Evidently the woman who had given that mirror to the temple must have regretted the giving. She had not presented her offering with all her heart; and therefore her selfish soul, remaining attached to the mirror, kept the mirror hard and cold in the midst of the furnace.

Of course, everybody heard of the matter, and everybody soon knew whose mirror it was that would not melt.

Because of this public exposure of her secret fault, the poor woman became very much ashamed and very angry. And as she could not bear the shame, she drowned herself, having written a farewell letter containing these words:

“When I am dead, it will not be difficult to melt the mirror and to cast the bell. But, to the person who breaks that bell by ringing it, great wealth will be given by the ghost of me.”

You must know that the last wish or promise of anybody who dies in anger, or performs suicide in anger, is generally supposed to possess a supernatural force.

After the dead woman’s mirror had been melted, and the bell had been successfully cast, people remembered the words of that letter. They felt sure that the spirit of the writer would give wealth to the breaker of the bell; and, as soon as the bell had been suspended in the court of the temple, they went in multitude to ring it.

With all their might and main they swung the ringing-beam; but the bell proved to be a good bell, and it bravely withstood their assaults. Nevertheless, the people were not easily discouraged.

Day after day, at all hours, they continued to ring the bell furiously, caring nothing whatever for the protests of the priests. So the ringing became an affliction; and the priests could not endure it; and they got rid of the bell by rolling it down the hill into a swamp. The swamp was deep, and swallowed it up, and that was the end of the bell.

Only its legend remains; and in that legend it is called the Mugen-Kane, or Bell of Mugen.

Oooooooo! Spooky!

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Awesome fun with Kappa and Tanuki

Want to see just how ubiquitous yokai demons are in Japanese culture?

Check out the awesome tanuki and kappa animations and resources the Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank put together as part of an advertising campaign for their DC card.

The ads feature a shape-shifting tanuki and a (traditionally) blood-hungry kappa. And they’re very cute!

(I can’t imagine any Australian bank advertising their credit card using a vampire or werewolf, can you?)

But seriously, if you’re into cute, or you’re interested in Japanese culture, you should check out the animations in particular (an example here). They are super-cute and the manga-like voice bubbles are a great resource for learning Japanese.

You can download short movies, desktop art, icons and stationary templates.

Don’t forget to scroll through the menu at the bottom of each page for extra options.

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Before Ben 10, there was 弁天, and she’s actually a woman

Some of you might think Benten is a ten-year-old boy with an awesome watch and a habit of turning into alien creatures. Well, you’re half correct.

Why only half?

Because you’re missing out on the original Benten (弁天):

For a start, Benten isn’t a boy, she’s a woman. And she’s around 1500 years old, not 10. And she doesn’t turn into aliens because she’s already a god and often has eight arms, plus she’s good friends with dragons and enormous snakes.

So Ben 10, eat your heart out. Benten is awesome!

The fabulous Matthew Meyer portrays the seven lucky gods (see Benten in the middle)

Before Ben 10, there was 弁天

Benten is one of the seven Japanese gods of good luck, and she’s the only female representative on the team.

She’s hugely popular in Japan: she’s the goddess of water and oceans, she protects against disaster, and she’s associated with artistic learning and wisdom and general prosperity. So she’s quite the god to have on your side.

Especially when you consider the dragons.

Benten is also called Benzaiten, though when she first came to Japan from India, she was called Sarasvatī.

She likes to play the biwa (Japanese mandolin), so she’s easy to spot in paintings and sculptures, although when she appears with eight arms, she ditches the biwa and instead carries a bow, arrow, sword, ax, spear, long pestle, iron wheel, and silk rope.

So again: don’t mess with this lady! She’s absolutely my kind of goddess.

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Yokai featured in Takeshita Demons

Subarashii! Yabai!
Takeshita Demons
Things are going super-well for Takeshita Demons at the moment.

The Filth Licker is ready for pre-order in the UK and Monster Matsuri is in its 50-millionth-draft-phase, so getting where I want it (YAY!).

If you have read Takeshita Demons you will know that Miku Takeshita and her pal Cait run into lots of mythological creatures from Japan, known as yokai (妖怪).

Below I’ve included a bit of historical info on some of them: is your favourite demon in Book 1? Or will you have till wait till The Filth Licker comes out to see what’s in store for Miku and Cait at school camp?

Happy reading!
And PS: You can pre-order The Filth Licker here and get free worldwide delivery plus 25% off: BARGAIN!

Amazake babaa (literally: Sweet sake woman) 甘酒婆
This yokai takes the shape of an old woman with a gentle voice, but don’t be fooled. If you answer the door when she knocks, chances are you’ll fall ill with chicken pox.

Ittan momen (Animated cotton) 一反木綿
Ittan momen are long bits of cloth that can come to life in the night. They love to tangle around your body and might even try to suffocate you, so keep an eye on your curtains.

 

Click on the noppera-bo to read about sightings of this demon in England!

 

Noppera-bō (Faceless ghost) のっぺら坊
Is the person sitting next to you really who you think they are? Noppera-bō are experts at pretending to be other people, and they love to cause trouble. Just when you least expect it their features can disappear, melting away to leave their face as empty as a blank page.

Nukekubi (Cut-throat) 抜首
During the day you might mistake this yokai for a normal person, but be warned. At night, while its body is sleeping, its head can detach and fly around hunting for delicious things to eat (like children and puppy dogs).

Nure-onna (literally: Woman of the Wet) 濡女
With the torso of a woman and the body of a snake, this fearsome yokai has wicked claws and a long forked tongue. She’s strong enough to crush a tree in the coils of her massive tail.

 

 

O-kubi (literally: Big Throat) 大首
If you’re ever staring up at the sky and spot an enormous head in the clouds, watch out! Spotting an o-kubi usually means something awful is just around the corner…

Sakabashira (literally: Inverted pillar) 逆柱
Did it happen by mistake? Or did someone do it on purpose? Whatever the reason, if some part of your house was built upside-down, your entire house is doomed to be haunted.

Yuki-onna (literally: Snow Woman) 雪女
Tall, pale and icily beautiful, this yokai is a spirit of the snow. She leaves no footprints, preferring to float above the ground, and she can disappear in a puff of cold mist.

Zashiki-warashi (House ghost) 座敷童
This mischievous yokai haunts houses and usually appears in the shape of a child. If your house is haunted by a zashiki-warashi, count yourself lucky, but don’t forget to take good care of it. If your house ghost ever chooses to leave you, your luck will quickly end.

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IBBY review of Takeshita Demons:

…For full text of the review, please scroll to bottom of post…

Thanks to the International Board on Books for Young People, or IBBY, and reviewer Anna Warren, for this ace review of Takeshita Demons.

“…exactly the kind of story the children in my class would love…”

“The pace is just right, and the language is accessible.”

“It’s great reading a children’s book that includes aspects of Japanese culture.”

YAY!
(I only wish they had got my name right (Cristy Burne not Cristy Burns) because when you Google Cristy Burns or Christie Burns you get models, musicians and Facebook pages, but not authors. I include this note in the hope that Google will realise and amend.)(Please?)

Full text:

This well-written book is exactly the kind of story the children in my class would love. I teach Year 4. I am taking the same set of children up to Year 5 in September and will definitely use Takeshita Demons as a class-focus text. I have already taught a unit on Japan, with captured their imagination.

This story contains all the basic elements that children aged 8-10 would find engaging:  a familiar school setting, a child they can identify with, but with the added surprise interest of a Japanese cut-throat demon! The pace is just right, and the language is accessible. All the Japanese language references are correct, and the author has backed them up with translations that flow with the narrative.  There seems to be more Japanese at the beginning of the story, which tends to tail off towards the end as the action picks up. The book initially reminded me of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, a link which children are likely to make. The children in my class will love the simple, graphic manga-style illustrations in the book.  The illustrations definitely add an extra appeal. I also like the fact that the author has included appendices explaining the history of Japanese demons, as well as the kanji characters.

It’s great reading a children’s book that includes aspects of Japanese culture. This is something I’ve not come across before. I think the author has done a brilliant job of referencing all the relevant cultural traditions, such as taking shoes off when entering a Japanese person’s home.

What I thought was very interesting was the reference to Japanese people preferring not to make big displays of affection like hugging (p.59). However, as a Japanese family, the Takeshitas are not pigeonholed. They are as happy eating pizza as they are tempura or noodles.

Anna Warren (Primary school teacher and graduate of Japanese)

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Awesome kids site: Folk legends of Japan

I’ve just discovered a terrific site for kids (and big kids) interested in learning more about Japan: Kids Web Japan.

There’s a cool section on Japanese folk tales, including the Tongue-cut Sparrow, The Mouse’s Wedding, and Japan’s tale of star-crossed lovers, Tanabata. Plus, of course, my favourite folktale: Momotaro, the story of a boy born in a peach.

(When I was living in Japan, my third year students performed their own version of Momotaro at our school’s cultural festival, writing the entire script in English and performing to the whole school. It was brilliant!)(We also did Hashire Meros, based on a short story by revered Japanese author, Osamu Dazai.)

Anyway, back to this terrific site: You can learn about sumo, explore a virtual Japanese house, try your hand at cooking… It’s brilliant fun.

Working, writing, playing!
I’ve been flat out this week preparing for school visits next week (the last week of school – YAY!) and library visits (school holidays – YAY!) and I’m absolutely loving Monster Matsuri…it’s a funny, scary and exciting book…Just the sort of thing I love to read. I’m nearing the end of the first draft but I know there’s lots more work to do.

I love writing!!
But MAN…I love writing. It’s so cool to invent a world and people who live in it, and then spend ages playing with them. I used to love playing with lego (and we’ve just introduced Fergus to lego too…he thinks everything is an aeroplane), and writing is just like playing with lego. You get a few pieces (words) and plug them together in different ways (sentences), and then you play with them for hours. FUN!

Off for more of that then!

xxx

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8 cool myths about dogs, and why the inugami dog-god didn’t make it

Draft 2 of the Filth Licker: the inugami dog-god yokai was too scary to include

The Filth Licker is almost finished and I’m flat out researching for book 3 of the Takeshita Demons trilogy, Monster Matsuri. All this research reminded me: just because a book has a plan, doesn’t mean things always go to plan. A big example of this is the inugami.

Inugami, exit stage left

The Filth Licker was supposed to feature an inugami, but in the end I chickened out. Why?

Because I felt inugami were too scary and too gruesome for 8 to 12 year olds. I know: they probably see more gruesome stuff just watching the news, but still, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So, the inugami was executed (so to speak).

What is an inugami?

The inugami or dog-god is a spirit created by starving a living dog to death, usually by burying it up to its neck. (I know: pretty awful. That’s why I couldn’t include it in a children’s book.)

The inugami remains faithful to the person who created it, using its powers for their good fortune. Families in possession of an inugami (called ‘inugami-mochi’) are said to be very powerful and are able to cause illness in enemies and bring wealth to allies. In the Oki islands, belief in inugami is so strong that there are specific regions where inugami-mochi families live, and it is wise to determine the inugami status of the family you intend to marry into before you tie the knot.

But, just because the inugami didn’t make it past the first draft, doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly interesting. And, the inugami is just one small part of a wealth of fascinating dog mythology. While researching inugami, I discovered a heap of other interesting stuff about dogs:

8 of the coolest things I discovered about the mythology surrounding dogs

1) Dogs have supernatural vision
Dogs can see fairies, hobgoblins and elves in their true form, and will bark to let you know such creatures are nearby. Because their sight is so keen, they’re difficult to trick. Ordinary shape-changers, like the kitsune (fox) and tanuki (badger) can’t work their magic on a dog.

2) Dogs can foresee disaster
If a dog climbs up to the roof of a building, a fire is certain to break out nearby. Also, if a dog starts howling at night, it could mean a coming earthquake or approaching death.

3) Dogs can unearth or protect buried treasure
If you’d like to discover gold or precious jewels buried in the forest, your best bet is to travel with a dog. They’re constantly digging up treasure, probably because they’re closely associated with the underworld of the dead. If you’re traveling with a three-legged dog (or, even better, a three-headed dog), you’re in for especial luck.

4) Dogs can be terrible liars
Many years ago, when dogs could still talk, a dog tricked his master into the lair of a hungry bear. The bear promptly ate the man, leaving the dog free to woo his widow. Back at home, the dog tried to convince the widow that his master’s last request was that the dog should marry her in his stead. Angry and grieving, and not at all fooled, the widow tossed a handful of dust into the dog’s mouth. And voila: the dog could speak no more.

5) Old dogs should be closely watched
The older a dog gets, the wiser it becomes. Very old dogs are so clever they can possess the living (or the dead) and can even turn into vampires. The best approach, then, is to kill the old dog before it grows too powerful.

6) Old white dogs should be watched even more closely
Enormous white dogs, especially those living in the mountains, could quite possibly be mountain deities. Such dogs are difficult to kill: those who try are severely punished along with their entire village. To keep these spirits happy, a yearly sacrifice (usually a virgin) is a must. The dog may eat or keep the virgin, depending on his mood.

7) Dog spirits are afraid of skewer spirits
If you find your luscious tidbits are always disappearing, they’re probably being eaten by dog ghosts, who have a terrible sweet tooth. A simple way to protect your nibblies is to string them on a skewer: the spirit of the skewer will keep the thieving spirits at bay.

8 ) The smaller the dog, the greater its power
Dogs bred to work as companions to witches and wizards are uncommonly small, about the size of a mouse. Don’t worry if you’re the only person who can see the tiny dog: they’re usually invisible to all except one member of the family.

Other posts you might enjoy:

Could Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak really make someone invisible?

How to write a synopsis: four big secrets and an example

Takeshita Demons: help us choose the cover art

Selective genetics or ghosts reborn? Legend of the Samurai crabs

Do you love monsters? Searching for games, activities or cool Japan-related teaching resources? If your answer is YES, you should check out the resources section of my website. Have fun!

Dogs have supernatural vision

Dogs can see fairies, hobgoblins and elves in their true form, and will bark to let you know such creatures are nearby. Because their sight is so keen, they’re difficult to trick. Ordinary shape-changers, like the kitsune (fox) and tanuki (badger) can’t work their magic on a dog.

Dogs can foresee disaster

If a dog climbs up to the roof of a building, a fire is certain to break out nearby. Also, if a dog starts howling at night, it could mean a coming earthquake or approaching death.

Dogs can unearth or protect buried treasure

If you’d like to discover gold or precious jewels buried in the forest, your best bet is to travel with a dog. They’re constantly digging up treasure, probably because they’re closely associated with the underworld of the dead. If you’re traveling with a three-legged dog (or, even better, a three-headed dog), you’re in for especial luck.

Dogs can be terrible liars

Many years ago, when dogs could still talk, a dog tricked his master into the lair of a hungry bear. The bear promptly ate the man, leaving the dog free to woo his widow. Back at home, the dog tried to convince the widow that his master’s last request was that the dog should marry her in his stead. Angry and grieving, and not at all fooled, the widow tossed a handful of dust into the dog’s mouth. And voila: the dog could speak no more.

Old dogs should be closely watched

The older a dog gets, the wiser it becomes. Very old dogs are so clever they can possess the living (or the dead) and can even turn into vampires. The best approach, then, is to kill the old dog before it grows too powerful.

Old white dogs should be watched even more closely

Enormous white dogs, especially those living in the mountains, could quite possibly be mountain deities. Such dogs are difficult to kill: those who try are severely punished along with their entire village. To keep these spirits happy, a yearly sacrifice (usually a virgin) is a must. The dog may eat or keep the virgin, depending on his mood.

Dog spirits are afraid of skewer spirits

If you find your luscious tidbits are always disappearing, they’re probably being eaten by dog ghosts, who have a terrible sweet tooth. A simple way to protect your nibblies is to string them on a skewer: the spirit of the skewer will keep the thieving spirits at bay.

The smaller the dog, the greater its power

Dogs bred to work as companions to witches and wizards are uncommonly small, about the size of a mouse. Don’t worry if you’re the only person who can see the tiny dog: they’re usually invisible to all except one member of the family.

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