The Japanese Yokai

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Hunter Savarese, Newspaper Staff Reporter

Yokai… a class of creature from the Japanese lore, often translated as monster, demon, or spirits.

There were hundreds of Yokai; some resembled humans, some resembled animals. Some were household objects brought to life after many years of neglect.

Born from fear, they were the source of the strange unearth noises at night. They were what led people to believe they were being followed. They were what caused the mysterious disappearance of objects and people.

Many sought out humans to play harmless pranks on them… but some wanted blood. As technology advanced, they vanished. They are gone but are not forgotten.

The world of Yokai lives on in tales such as this one…

There once was a girl named Hamachi who fell in love with the creatures called Yokai. She invited two kids from her hometown into the woods and tried to summon a Yokai.

They did not believe her and thought that a Yokai would never show up. They kept on insulting Yokai until Hamachi snapped at them and told them to leave.

The two kids left so she decided to continue the summoning so she can finally get to meet a Yokai in person. All of a sudden, Hamachi fell asleep in the middle of the woods. Then a humanoid Yokai with a 5 foot long neck carried her back home to the village.

Hamach wakes up wondering how she got home then her grandma comes outside and yells at her and tells her to go get firewood. Hamachi sprints into the woods collecting firewood and notices something.

There was an injured Yokai and this Yokai is called a Cappa.  A Cappa looks like a person but it’s green, has a beak, a shell on its back and a dish on its head.

The Cappa seemed to have gotten injured in a bear trap. She went over to go help the injured Cappa but it didn’t want her help and said to just leave him to die.

She kept on insisting on helping him until he gave in and said that she can help. She made sure to be very careful and cut off his foot and replaced it with a peg leg.

When he was better, she asked how he got captured in a bear trap. The Cappa explains to her that all Cappa’s love pickles and there was one in the trap so when he went for it, he got stuck.

They became friends and Hamachi named him, Madcap .

Hamachi went back home after that but the Cappa wanted revenge on whoever put that  trap there and killed them.