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Yokai Attack!
I got a copy of Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt the other day. It's a book containing the history and descriptions of 50 traditional Japanese supernatural creatures, organized into a "What to do if you encounter one" sort of way. Despite the gimmick, it contains a lot of interesting, solid information on the creatures, which get 3-4 pages each. Which is a relief, because I was afraid it'd be a book of bullet-pointed factoids that didn't offer any more information than was already available in English. And it contained quite a few yokai I hadn't already heard about. :)
It's illustrated by Tatsuya Morino, and I liked the illustrations more than I thought I would when I heard about the style - there's a certain style of cartoony that really just turns me off inexplicably, but he avoids that. :) There's also several reproductions of period illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries, along with photos and pictures of other variations.
There were a couple of spots where the authors got a fact I knew (not about yokai) slightly wrong, which makes me wonder what I *didn't* know about that was wrong, but overall, it seems pretty solid.*
So - good to get if you want something a little more pop-culture to read while waiting for the more scholarly Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai
next month, or if you don't want to deal with the more academic tone of the latter.
--
* Rant time! The one I remember was referring to Murasaki, the author of The Tale of Genji as a courtesan, which is pretty much dead wrong. Courtier is closer to her station, and I think they might have mixed it up with concubine, which isn't right, either, but at least has connotations of a woman in a royal court. Lady-in waiting is really the best approximation that exists in English. It's not a matter of mere semantics, because the primary purpose of courtesans and concubines is to provide sexual companionship for men (intellectual also, for courtesans), while courtiers and ladies in waiting are high-born people who provide social and intellectual companionship for men and women - historically women for women and men for men. Rather a large difference in social status there! Murasaki was a companion to the Empress, not a bedmate for the Emperor.
I really hope they meant courtier and an over-eager copy editor changed it to courtesan.**
** Now watch the book actually read courtier and I made this whole thing up. XD It's been a couple of days since I read it - I really ought to double-check the passage when I'm at home and make sure I remembered it correctly.
It's illustrated by Tatsuya Morino, and I liked the illustrations more than I thought I would when I heard about the style - there's a certain style of cartoony that really just turns me off inexplicably, but he avoids that. :) There's also several reproductions of period illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries, along with photos and pictures of other variations.
There were a couple of spots where the authors got a fact I knew (not about yokai) slightly wrong, which makes me wonder what I *didn't* know about that was wrong, but overall, it seems pretty solid.*
So - good to get if you want something a little more pop-culture to read while waiting for the more scholarly Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai
next month, or if you don't want to deal with the more academic tone of the latter.--
* Rant time! The one I remember was referring to Murasaki, the author of The Tale of Genji as a courtesan, which is pretty much dead wrong. Courtier is closer to her station, and I think they might have mixed it up with concubine, which isn't right, either, but at least has connotations of a woman in a royal court. Lady-in waiting is really the best approximation that exists in English. It's not a matter of mere semantics, because the primary purpose of courtesans and concubines is to provide sexual companionship for men (intellectual also, for courtesans), while courtiers and ladies in waiting are high-born people who provide social and intellectual companionship for men and women - historically women for women and men for men. Rather a large difference in social status there! Murasaki was a companion to the Empress, not a bedmate for the Emperor.
I really hope they meant courtier and an over-eager copy editor changed it to courtesan.**
** Now watch the book actually read courtier and I made this whole thing up. XD It's been a couple of days since I read it - I really ought to double-check the passage when I'm at home and make sure I remembered it correctly.
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