Manga titan Shigeru Mizuki brings Japan’s most entertaining myths to the modern age


As travelers approach a lush, cedar forest―the soft floor and woodland scent palpable from Shigeru Mizuki’s fecund drawing―something falls from the trees with a thud: a human head, twelve times average size. A dozen more heads follow, peering at the travelers with maniacal laughter, before retreating back into the woods. A hallucination? No, this is Tohoku No Tsurubeotoshi.

An earthworm, larger than a human, floats in the air, backlit from window lights ensconced by shadowy darkness. Sontsuru―majestic on the page in Shigeru Mizuki’s delicate ink lines and bold colors―is no worm, but a yokai who haunts families across generations, wriggling between their skin and muscles.

And then there is Shirime, a city dwelling trickster who shouts, “A moment, sir!” only to then lift their kimono to reveal their unusual rump―a giant, glowing eyeball where one would otherwise expect a crack.

Indeed, not all the yokai in the pages of Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki’s Supernatural Parade are there to cause fright. Like Mizuki himself, yokai often have a playful spirit, which Mizuki explores with joy in this stunning collection, which contains one hundred new, lavish, full page yokai illustrations, with biographies for each.

Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki’s Supernatural Parade is the companion book to Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki, and includes supplementary writing by acclaimed Mizuki scholar and translator Zack Davisson.

Available in Hardback.