GeGeGe no Kitarō

What it is

Kitarō is the last child of the ghost tribe, born in a graveyard with one eye, a striped vest and a father who survives as an eyeball living in his hair. With Nezumi-Otoko, a half-rat opportunist who sells out either side for a meal, and a band of yokai allies, he settles disputes between humans and the spirit world. Mizuki Shigeru brought the character from the rental comics of 1960 to Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1965, and from there to six television series and most Japanese childhoods. The allies are the heart of it: Nurikabe the wall, Konaki-Jijii the crying old man, Ittan-Momen the flying cloth, Sunakake-Babaa the sand-thrower. Their faces are the ones Japan now uses for those names.

Yokai that appear

• Nurarihyon 滑瓢 — The self-styled supreme commander of the yokai and Kitarō's recurring enemy: a scheming old man in the manga of the 1960s, raised to arch-villain by the 1985 television series.
• Nurikabe 塗り壁 — A regular ally: the wall that blocks the road, given eyes and feet, who shields the others in the yokai war.
• Konaki-jiji 児啼爺 — A regular ally: the old man who turns to stone and pins an enemy under his weight.
• Ittan-momen 一反木綿 — A regular ally and Kitarō's flying mount, a strip of cloth with eyes and a Kyushu accent.
• Bakeneko 化け猫 — Neko-Musume, the cat girl whose face turns feline when she is angry or hungry; from volume 1 of the English edition.
• Bake-danuki 化け狸 — The eight hundred tanuki of Shikoku, villains of the Great Tanuki War (English volume 3).
• Noppera-bō — A faceless villain who steals Nezumi-Otoko's face (English volume 1).
• Makura-gaeshi 枕返し — The pillow-turner, villain of one story in English volume 1.
• Ushi-oni 牛鬼 — Gyūki, the ox-demon that possesses Kitarō and turns him into a monster (English volume 1).
• Mokumokuren 目目連 — The paper screen that opens its eyes (English volume 3).
• Kasha 火車 — The corpse-stealing cat of English volume 7.
• Tengu 天狗 — Amefuri Tengu, the rain-bringing tengu of a 1968 story (English volume 6).
• Kitsune 狐 — Tenko, the celestial fox, a villain of the 1960s run; the fox-against-tanuki feud of Shikoku is behind the tanuki war.
• Daidarabotchi — A giant villain of the 1960s run, collected in the Japanese paperback edition.
• Akaname 垢嘗 — A villain of the 1960s magazine run.
• Iso-onna 磯女 — A villain of the 1960s magazine run.
• Keukegen 毛羽毛現 — A villain of the 1960s magazine run.
• Ōkubi 大首 — The giant head, a villain of the 1960s magazine run.
• Mikoshi-nyūdō 見越入道 — Drawn under its other name, Miage-nyūdō, as a villain of the 1960s run.
• Karakasa-kozō 唐傘小僧 — The umbrella spirit, a villain of the 1960s magazine run.
• Tofu-kozō 豆腐小僧 — Title character of a 1960s episode, collected in the Japanese paperback edition; not in the English volumes.

How far from the record

Mizuki took his names from Yanagita Kunio’s lists and his designs from Toriyama Sekien’s picture books and the Edo scrolls, and where the record gave him a name and nothing else, he drew the rest. The nurikabe of the Fukuoka records is an event, the road ahead turning into a wall; the wall with eyes and feet is Mizuki’s. The ittan-momen of Kagoshima is a strip of cloth that wraps a face and strangles; the friendly flying cloth with eyes and a Kyushu accent is Mizuki’s. The konaki-jijii of Tokushima is an infant’s cry in the mountains that becomes a crushing weight; the old man who turns to stone is Mizuki’s. The stories borrow from anywhere, an English ghost story, an American horror comic, Irish lore for the ending of the yokai war. The forms held: when a Japanese reader pictures a nurikabe, they picture his. The translator of the seven English volumes has said he chose Mizuki’s spirit over the literal line and kept the notes light; each volume closes with “Yokai Files” that give the folklore behind the cast.

Where to read it

The seven English volumes are the children’s edition and the place to start, in order: The Birth of Kitaro, Kitaro Meets Nurarihyon, Kitaro and the Great Tanuki War, Kitaro’s Strange Adventures, Kitaro the Vampire Slayer, Kitaro’s Yokai Battles, The Trial of Kitaro. The single volume Kitaro of 2013 is a separate selection for adults that includes “The Great Yokai War” of 1966. The rental-era Hakaba Kitarō, darker and older, has no English edition.

English

Kitaro (external link) — Drawn & Quarterly, 7 volumes (2016–2020) plus the 2013 selection, complete

Spanish

Kitaro (external link) — Astiberri, 11 volumes (2010–2024), complete

Indonesian

No Indonesian edition found