Japanese and Western Youkai

Today I took the third lecture at Musashi Univ. The small theme was “ The Japanese Youkai (hobgoblins) and the western ones.” I had looked forward to this lecture because the theme sounds very fun! Tradition says that there are hundreds of Youkai in Japan. Since there are still lots of movies, books, and animated cartoons about Youkai, it is very familiar to me and I can mention some of them.

Today’s teacher was American man. Since he got 15 Japanese writings from his teacher when he was 15 years old, he got interest in Japanese literature. At the beginning of the lecture, he asked us…
“ Do you think there are Youkai in other countries?”
Mmm…I hadn’t thought like that thing. Well, Frankenstein, werewolf, Casper, Moomin, Troll, Adam’s family…?? Yes, he introduced those, and vampire and plastic man, too.

In the meantime, in Japanese Youkai, followings are well- known.
Tofu Kozo – The boy who always has Tofu
Kitaro – the famous character of animated cartoon
Nuri Kabe –The Youkai of wall which have hands and foot.
Ittan Momen – The clothes which can fly
Konaki- Jijii – The old man who can be very heavy like rock
And there are much more kinds of Youkai. I regret I can’t tell everything here…

Attending to the teacher, I and my mother noticed one thing. Western Youkai are more like human-being and noble. On the other hand, Japanese Youkai are more like commoner, and not only like human-being but also animals, plants, and “stuffs” like wall or clothes. Those are kind of deformed “stuffs.”

I think it comes from the Japanese traditional way of thinking. The old people thought every thing has life. It means not only human being, animals and plants, but also desk, lamp, wall, cloth, stone, hammer and every other thing. That brings the idea that every thing has a potential to be Youkai.

As I expected, today’s lecture was really interesting for me. I didn’t know the world of Youkai was so profound…