No nation seems to loves its monsters, more than the island country of Japan.
Spirits from Japanese folklore, which number in the hundreds, are known as yokai.
Some are mischievous troublemakers.
Others are the epitome of evil.
A few are helpful, even kind.
But the monsters of which you are about to hear, are guaranteed the most strange.
According to legend, the baku were created with spare parts, left over when the gods
had finished their creation, of all the other animals.
The baku has the head of an elephant, the body of a bear, and the tufted tail of an
ox.
It prowls large areas of land, whose territory it guards jealously, driving other harmful
spirits out of small country villages.
Thus it is considered a holy creature, and the bearer of good fortune.
However it is benevolent only so long as it has enough to eat.
The baku dines on people's nightmares, for its diet solely consists of bad dreams.
A Japanese child who wakes up from a nightmare, can petition this creature to remove all its
traces.
Legend says that if the child repeats three times, the words "baku-san, come eat my dream",
the brute will come into the child's room, and=devour the nightmare, allowing the youngster
to peacefully return to sleep.
But the baku must be called, only for the most terrifying, of nocturnal episodes, because
if after eating the dream, he still remains hungry, he may likewise consume all of the
youngster's hopes and desires, condemning the child to a life of emptiness.
The tsukumogami are common household tools.
When they reach their 100th birthday, they become alive and self-aware.
One of these tools is hahakigami, or the common broom.
On a dark and stormy night, hahakigami might be seen dancing around the house, sweeping
vigorously after leaves being tossed about by the wind.
It does not matter, that while the wind blows, it is useless to sweep.
The broom spirit does this, for its own entertainment.
Why doesn't the owner just throw it out?
It is because in Japan, brooms first appeared as a part of religious ceremony.
They are associated with ritual purification, and the cleaning out of anything unwanted.
The charm of a spirit broom, is said to prevent guests from overstaying any visit.
Also, hahakigami in your house, will ensure a quick and painless childbirth, in which
the newborn is literally swept out of the womb.
Another tool spirit is the kasa-obake, a parasol which is possessed.
These umbrellas usually appear with one eye, one leg, and a very long tongue.
The Japanese consider this character representative of haunted houses.
Shikigami are paper dolls that follow the commands of their master.
These spirits have no will of their own.
They are conjured into being out of nothingness, by the magic spells of their creator.
The shikigami, which may appear as origami, are used to carry out orders such as spying,
or theft, or tracking an enemy without detection.
Sometimes they are used to perform manual labor, and because they can be conjured in
great numbers, they can do a large amount of work in a very short span of time.
The more accomplished the magician, the more large and the more human, the paper doll will
appear.
A shikigami, will be forced to return to its inanimate paper form, as soon as it gains
its objective, or maybe sooner, if it becomes damaged, or if it is captured.
The jorogumo is a spider woman, or a giant arachnid, with the power to take the form
of a beautiful maiden.
Jorogumo is sometimes represented as a creature whose top half is human, and whose lower torso
is that of a spider.
After seducing a man, she will bind him in her web, and then consume him.
Sometimes she will make an appearance, as a young mother coddling a baby.
She will ask a passing man to hold the infant.
If he agrees, he will discover the baby is really a nest full of spider eggs, which now
burst open to engulf him.