these Pokemon creatures are like virtual
cyber demons
yes digital demons digital demons these
pokemon creatures are like virtual cyber
demons thus said evangelical Christian
pastor rick wiles after the launch of
pokemons go in 2016 and he's not
completely wrong a lot of Pokemon are
influenced by supernatural beings in
Japanese religion and mythology
specifically two types of supernatural
beings called kami and youkai and the
Japanese religion of Shinto kami in the
most basic sense of the word are spirits
or sometimes translated as gods some
comi are indeed anthropomorphic deities
like the Sun Goddess Amaterasu or Inari
okami patron of agriculture and
prosperity but other comi are less
clearly defined the numinous spirits of
places like mountains or rivers or the
spirits of natural forces like the wind
kami are at the center of Shintoism
which encompasses the institutions and
rituals and beliefs that orbit the
worship of Qaumi and japan yokai on the
other hand are a type of ghost monster
or demon in japanese mythology the
scholar of japanese folklore michael
dylan foster who has written some of the
most definitive books on yokai leaves
the definition open-ended but he says it
could be translated as monster spirit
goblin ghosts demon phantom Spectre
fantastic being or lower-order deity
there isn't a clear distinction between
comi and yokai I do think most scholars
would say that these are two types of
supernatural being but the boundary is
hazy Michael Dylan foster uses the
analogy of a water spirit living in a
river a village that benefits from that
rivers resources might worship that
water spirit as a commie but if you live
in the village downstream where the
river floods and there's diseases they
might fear that exact same spirit as a
malevolent yokai a renowned Japanese
folklorist kunio yanagita even viewed
yokai as fallen commie as a Japanese
video game created by Japanese
developers we
shouldn't be surprised that some of this
folklore and religion made its way into
the game so here are a few pokemons
based on Japanese religion number one
drowsy drowsy is a psychic-type pokémon
and part of the first generation to be
created back in 1996 he's famous for
putting his enemies to sleep and then
eating their dreams drowsy appears to be
based off of another tapir snouted
creature with a habit of eating dreams
called Baku Baku are yokai that appear
in Chinese poetry as far back as the 9th
century CE II but by the Edo period in
Japan they had developed into a
benevolent protector yokai that eats
your nightmares you could even put an
image of a Baku by your bed to protect
you from bad dreams now
this transition from Chinese mythology
to Japanese mythology will come up again
and again in this video and that's
because Chinese influences were exerted
on Japanese forms of government language
and religion throughout its history so
keep an eye out for that
moving on to tornadoes and thunderous as
you approach the Buddhist temple Sensoji
in Tokyo you might notice the statues of
two comi as you pass through the gate
statues of Fujin and Raijin the god of
wind and the god of thunder
Fujin is frequently depicted as a
green-skinned anthropomorphic being
carrying a big bag of wind reijin is
portrayed usually with a halo of disks
and also sometimes with green skin the
similarities between Fujin and tornadoes
are pretty obvious
both are anthropomorphic green skin
beings and both have the power to
control the wind thunderous and reijin
are not quite as close but the
similarities are still there and all of
them seem to travel around on a cloud
moving on to nine tails one of my
personal favourite Pokemon this
beautiful nine-tailed Fox Pokemon is
almost an exact copy of QB no kitsune
the nine tailed fox Comi or yokai it
really depends on who you ask
foxes and Japanese mythology have
magical powers and shape-shifting
abilities and they're sometimes
malevolent foxes are also the sidekicks
and messin
of the comi Inari and actually if you
visit Inari shrines throughout Japan
you'll find statues of foxes to which
you can make offerings of fried tofu
showing that traditional Shinto ritual
practice is alive and well in Japan
despite its reputation of being
relatively non religious and finally we
have dusclops a ghost pokemon dusclops
appears to be modeled after a lantern
yokai called a Trojan Trojan are a part
of a special class of yokai called
tsukumogami household objects that after
a long time are inhabited by a spirit
this might include umbrellas Haunted tea
kettles or even sandal ghosts but the
paper lantern a common sight found
throughout Japan is one of the better
known examples now besides the single
eye and ribbed body
it doesn't seem immediately obvious that
dusclops is supposed to be a lantern but
the video games seem to support this
theory the Emerald version of the
Pokedex says that dusclops as body is
hollow with a spectral ball of fire
burning inside hollow with fire inside
sounds a lot like a lantern now I could
mention a bunch of other examples but
let's leave that as a challenge to you
all to try to find which pokemon seem to
be inspired by kami and youkai Japanese
mythology has a rich pantheon of ghosts
demons and phantoms and nature is rife
with these intermediary beings in many
respects this parallels what we see in
the world of Pokemon a world where the
natural and the supernatural literally
interact a world where humans and
godlike beings intermingle as always
I've put some sources in the description
below if you'd like to learn more about
Shintoism thanks for watching and I'll
see you next time
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