Yokai Night Parade 百鬼夜行

Manga Closest to the Recorded Folklore

From the tales themselves to the shapes the tales describe

3 titles

No manga is a folklore record, and the three here are not trying to be. They are the ones that start from the record and stay near it: one draws the tales as they were written down, one keeps the shapes of the old pictures while inventing everything else, and one keeps the register of the village story while withholding the names.

  1. Tono Monogatari 水木しげるの遠野物語

    Keeps to the recorded tales Mizuki Shigeru · 2008–2009

    Mizuki Shigeru draws the 1910 book of Tōno's tales, kappa and house spirits and mountain women, and walks into it himself.

    Yokai that appear: Kappa, Zashiki-warashi, Tengu, Yamauba, Kitsune, Yuki-onna

  2. GeGeGe no Kitarō ゲゲゲの鬼太郎

    Keeps the traditional forms, invents the stories Mizuki Shigeru · 1965–1969, with later runs to the 1990s

    The manga that gave Japan's yokai their modern faces: a one-eyed boy and his friends against the monsters of the picture scrolls.

    Yokai that appear: Nurarihyon, Nurikabe, Konaki-jiji, Ittan-momen, Bakeneko, Bake-danuki, Noppera-bō, Makura-gaeshi, Ushi-oni, Mokumokuren, Kasha, Tengu, Kitsune, Daidarabotchi, Akaname, Iso-onna, Keukegen, Ōkubi, Mikoshi-nyūdō, Karakasa-kozō, Tofu-kozō

  3. Natsume's Book of Friends 夏目友人帳

    Keeps the traditional forms, invents the stories Midorikawa Yuki · 2003–

    A boy who sees spirits inherits his grandmother's ledger of their names and gives them back, one yokai at a time.

    Yokai that appear: Kappa, Kitsune