Ma, Chung-hsi : (1446-1512) Chinese author of the supernatural tale, “The Wolf of Chung-San”. Not a werewolf tale, the wolf has human attributes of intellectual thought and speech with a didactic ending. This fable was adapted as a drama by K’ang Hai and appears in it least one other collection of such tales.
Maboroshi : Japanese phantom, vision, dream, phantasm, apparition.
Madness : A potentially horrific state of mind. Madness can be a source of terror to the afflicted themselves and to their sane companions. Highly exaggerated as threat in popular culture, madness can be used effectively to invoke horror and modify audience attitudes towards a character.
Mae Nak :
Notorious Thai ghost. She was a woman
who died while pregnant, which the Thai believe makes a powerful but horrid
ghost. She killed people by sucking
their blood. A priest managed to
imprison her in a bottle, which was later discovered by local fishermen and
reopened. Finally she was allayed by a
priest, but Thai people are still afraid of mentioning her name for fear of
seeing her in their dreams.
Maeda, Toshio : Manga creator know for grotesque horror, Urotsuki Douji (Legend of the Wandering Boy). The world is divided in man, monsters and manbeasts. It’s a prophecy that the a super god will return to Earth to unite the there groups. His Injuu Gakuen was made into a video called Injuu Gakuen: Shikimakai no Gyakushuu (Beast High School: Return of Lust World, 1994) and two sequels the following year.
Magic Arts :
Tale from P’u Song Ling’s Liao Zhai. A student, Mr. Yu, sees a necromancer
who tells him that he has three days to live.
The necromancer can help him by occult means but Mr. Yu refused to pay
the necromancer’s fee. The dreaded day
arrives and Mr.Yu finds himself under attack by creatures that revert to being
ordinary objects when defeated with his sword.
He realizes that the necromancer animated figures of paper and clay to
kill him. He visits the necromancer who
immediately vanishes. Using dog’s blood
to reveal him in his invisible state, he defeats the necromancer and saves his
own life. This tale dictates against
the Chinese belief in destiny. Mr. Yu
save himself with his own courage and swordsmanship.
Magic Sword : Tale from P’u Song Ling’s Liao Zhai filmed as A Chinese Ghost Story and In Love with the Ghost in Lushan. It is a weird tale about a beautiful dead girl of 18, who bewitches young men, leading them to their death. This death is either by demons exsanguinating them by drawing blood from a hole in their foot or by tearing out their hearts and livers.
Magnanimous Girl :
Tale from P’u Song Ling’s Liao Zhai filmed
as A Touch of Zen.. This story is a
twist on the old fox possession theme but its supernatural character is slight
compared the exaggerated plot of the film.
Makina, Ikkei :
Japanese novelist. He authored Shou-chan sora wo tobu which was made
into the 1992 horror film called 200X
nen: Shō
(Year 200X: Shō). It appears to be a variation of The Children of the Damned.
Makino, Osamu : Japanese
writer. Member of the SFWA. He is author of Kabane no ou (King of Corpses, 1999).
Malaysia : Malaysia has a lively supernatural culture
consisting of folklore, urban legends and more recently horror films. See also Pelesit, Penangal, Vampires,
Malaysian.
Mamano : Rare
species of Japanese demon.
Manga : Broader in scope than American comics, Japanese comics, or manga as they are called, span the entire range of popular culture from history to video games. Starting with the earliest two dimensional artwork, the Japanese point to the roots of manga in comic animal scrolls and horrific occult fantasies, such as the nightly parade of demons (hyaki-yakō) of centuries past. This raw material still inspires horror in modern Japanese visual arts.
The old style pre-comics manga of the Japanese Edo period often depicted the nightly procession of demons so ingrained in Japanese culture. These fantastic drawings were in stark contrast to the realism, minimalism and sensibility of most Asian art of the time. See also Art, Japanese.
In the 19th century, even the esteemed Hokusai often chose supernatural or grotesque subjects that are still startling to look at today. His goblin spiders and enormous leering skeletons are spectacular examples of horrid art.
Modern manga had its beginnings in Japan in the early 1900’s but it was an imitation of Western comics and animation characters. It did not come into its own until after WWII, with a wave of Japanese comic artists, or manga-kas, starting with Tezuka Osamu, the team of Fujiko Fujio and literally thousands of others. Providing cheap entertainment to the amusement-starved children of the post-war era, manga is a huge industry, the largest force in the Asian publishing world.
The extensive Age of Manga exhibition at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art in 1998 demonstrated the importance of horror in manga. Divided by genre, the two large sections of horror manga held its own against the other main categories: science fiction, sports, romance and adventure. The quality of the artwork and the long lines of admirers said more about the status of manga and horror in the minds of the Japanese people than a stack of academic journals.
Horror played an import role in the development of manga from its earliest days. Horror appears in Japanese comics in five different manifestations. The original comics of course were imitative of American comics and the close connection between horror and humor is evident. The next type retained humor but introduced native Japanese ghosts and supernatural creatures. The third type is a form of Shōjo manga or comics written for girls, including romantic and erotic vampirism, haunted schools and doomed lovers. Four is the modern “ero guro” manga has erotic and grotesque horror often harking back to the 19th century styles and fascination with not only the supernatural but with blood and gore. The fifth type is the modern horror that uses everything from religious cults, biological research, and modern technology to bring horror up to date.
One of Tezuka’s hororr manga is Shinryōsaishi Jorōgumo (Jorō is a geisha or prostitute, Gumo is spider, roughly translates Spider Woman.) It begins with a two page spread of a traditional Japanese demon procession done in Tezuka’s distinctive cartoon style. The story itself features artists who draw weird pictures and a spider web enshrouded corpses drained of fluids.
Tezuka used traditional Japanese supernatural folklore, though manga artists seem divided between using Asian or Western occult traditions. Some directly borrow from Japanese art, such as Ima Ichiko who wrote a manga series based on the Hyaki yakō or Kusonoke Kei whose work animates traditional Japanese armor and masks with striking detail and accuracy. In contrast, Koga Shinichi, best known for Eko Eko Azaraku, packs his stories with Western concepts such as witchcraft, pentagrams, sigils, incantations and voodoo dolls. Even “eko eko asarak” is a phrase from European ceremonies, still in use by Wiccan sects today.
Another Japanese culture based work was Moroboshi Daijiro’s Yōkai Hunter (Ghost Hunter) series that appeared in the 1970’s. His title character is Hieda Reijiro, professor of archaeology, whose investigations are inspired by classic Japanese ghost stories and mythology. Such Japanese mainstays as the Bancho Sarayashiki, the ancient Kojiki and the Sea Dragon Festival appeared in different segments of this long running series. He also made other series of comics inspired by Chinese ghost stories and weird legends.
Like Tezuka, many other manga artists noted for their work
in othe genres tried their hands at horror. Fujiko Fujio, the team that
created Doraemon, created horror
stories, collected in the volume Bukimi
Collection (Weird Collection). Even Ishinomore Shotarō
known for Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) and
Cyborg 009 made an influential horror
comic in the 1960’s, Burū
Zōn
I (Blue Zone I).
Many others, such as Umezu Kazuo and Mizuki Shigeru specialized in horror, making their names synonymous with weird culture. Mizuki wrote humorous stories based on Japanese ghosts, the most famous being Gegege no Kitarō. Humorous horror seems to be a contradiction in terms though Baudelaire in his essay on comedy pointed out the connection between the two. Though higly entertaining, reading Mizuki’s manga is an education is Japanese “ghostology” or yokaigaku, a subject Mizuki wrote serious books about. Umezu added a more modern, science fiction twist to his horror, sometimes setting his manga a haunted, post-apocalyptic future.
Giant robot creator, Go Nagai turned to horror with his hugely popular Devilman series. Still running today in the form of spin off series, it is a body horror story of a boy infested with demon blood. He thus gains tremendous strength enabling him to fight demons on behalf of mankind.
An unexpectedly large source of horror culture is shōjo manga. In the mid 1970’s, Hagio Moto’s shōjo vampire class, Po no Ichizoku (The Poe Clan), skyrocketed to popularity. It attracted a significant number of young male readers to a genre aimed at young girls. The Poe Clan does not appear to have direct connection to Edgar Allan Poe, except for borrowing his name. It is the story of two orphan children adoped into the Poe family, a clan of vampires.
After The Poe Clan, a barrage of shōjo horror followed. Kakinochi Narumi’s Vampire Princess Miyu, Takada Yuzo’s Sazan Aisu (3x3 Eyes), and more recently the manga production Clamp’s X/1999. Worthing mention also is Iwaaki Hitoshi’s popular Kiseijū (Parasyte), close in spirit to shōjo horror but appealing to both sexes.
Erotic vampire shōjo manga is
separate sub-genre in itself. To name
one example, Kodaka Kazuma’s Kimera features
an irresistible vampire from space, akin to those in Life Force or Species. Scanning the shelves of a manga store,
titles of shōjo
manga tell the story: Vampire Kiss, My
Girlfriend is a Vampire, Help! , Vampire! or Roses for a Vamp to name a few.
A non-traditional but still very Japanese source of horror manga, Japanese monster or Kaijū films bled over into manga. Just as popular Hollywood movies are novelized in the United States, movies often become manga in Japan. Gojira (Godzilla) and Gamera have their own comic book series and undoubtedly others exist. These works are often only marginally horror, since they are only frightening to small children and frequently emphasize banal ecological or social messages.
Horror films often transform into manga. Almost everything Suzuki Koji writes becomes turns into television or film and then gets adapted to manga. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which came first. As another example, the blockbuster, Parasite Eve, began life as a novel, turned into a film and ended up adapted for manga twice. First, “Shikakuno,” probably a pseudonym, did the manga for the original novel, and Fuziki Noriko did the manga version of the video game.
As in America, underground comics challenge the conventional formula for horror manga in Japan. The founder of this type of horror is Hanawa Kazuichi, an artist strongly influenced by Japanese traditional art, especially of the medieval period. In contrast, Hino Hideshi’s work are another prime example. The stark horror and black humor of his Panorame of Hell and Hell Baby cut across cultural boundaries. Rooted in neither Japanese or European horror, he created a new artistic vista, demonstrating the diversity and vitality of the horror manga field.
Managaka : Creator
of a japanese comic book.
Masao, Higashi : Japanese horror writer.
Matsumote, Chiaki? : Japanese manga creator. She adapted several H.P. Lovecraft stories to the comic strip form, including “Reddo Hooku no Kyoufu” (“the Horror at Red Hook”), “Errihi Tsuan on Ongaku” (“The Music of Erich Zann”), and “Autoseida” (“The Outsider”), all 1990-91.
Matsumoto, Seicho : Japanese mystery horror writer. Kadokawa. So influential, Matsumoto described a thick forest in the slopes of Mt Fuji as an ideal place to commit suicide. In 1998 alone, seventy people were found dead there, all apparently self demises.
Matsumoto, Yōko :Japanese shōjo manga creator (b. 1953?) noted for horror manga Mamonogatari.(Demon Story). One of her latest works is Yami wa Tsudō (Tales From the Dark Side, “Serial Misteri”), wherein a Guardian hears the stories of recently dead, and other wandering spirits, and decides whether they should return to the land of the living, heaven or hell. The unfinished business motif still flourishes in horror manga.
Maya, Mineo :
Japanese manga creator. He made the Cthulhu mythos comic “Asutorodo no
Gaiden” (“The Asteroid from Outside”).
Metempsychosis : The transfer of a soul from one body to another (human, animal, or inanimate) is a common device across all types of Asian weird lore. This probably stems from Buddhist ideas about the soul and reincarnation. A similar philosophy flourished in ancient Greece, especially under the guise of Orphism, and both Plato and the Pythorgeans both adopted this concept in modified forms. It had a small revival during the Renaissance with the discovery of Hermetic texts on the subject.
The Liaozhai contains a tale of a Buddhist priest upon dying entered the body of rich young man who died at the same time. Having died suddenly, the priest was confused about what happened to him and journeyed back to his old monastery to find his newly dug grave. He forsook the wife, wealth and position of the young man he possessed and returned to his priestly duties at the monastery.
Willoughby-Meade also tells the story of a young woman being possessed by the spirit of a deceased fortune teller. She displayed an extensive array of knowledge, far beyond her age, sex and station. She had a dream in which the possessing spirit complained about the treatment of his remains at a local temple. The impostor was flogged for possessing the innocent girl and she was set free on awakening.
Meimu : Japanese horror comic artist (b. 1963). His name means illusion or fantasy. He originally worked for the erotic Lemon People manga. Then he debuted with his own manga Death Mask.
He is primarily noted for the manga adaptation of the Ring movies and more recently Silk Screen.
Mifune Chizuko, Note Japanese psychic (1889-1911). She inspired part of the original film version of The Ring. Hideo Nakata, director of the Ring, discussed her in one of his interviews about the film.
Mifune supposedly had many psychic talents. She allegedly could project writing on film, see through walls, locate missing objects and detect diseases.
A Tokyo University professor, Fukurai Tomokichi, devoted his life to studying spiritual
phenomena, especially nensha, or
psychography, the ability to project images. Mifune Chizuko was one of his most
controversial subjects. Fukurai
confirmed that Mifune could read text
concealed in envelopes. Under criticism
especially from Fukurai’s colleague, Yamakawa Kenjiro, testing ran into bad
luck and the public outcry against Mifune made her commit suicide.
Mimi-Bukuro : Japanese Edo period anthology written by a samurai, Negishi Shizue. Naturally, it contains some ghost stories, and it is the source for tales The Fortune Telling Doll and Kiku Mushi.
Minagawa, Hiroko :
Japanese novelist (b. 1930). She is
known for The Spring of Death, a
horrid tale of mysterious Nazi experiments during the war. She wrote the scenario for the bloody movie
Edo period film, Sharaku. She also wrote Love Crimson, and she also wrote the
book, Koi Kurenai (Shinchosha Tokyo:
1986).
Ming Hsiang Chi : Divine Manifestations, written in the 6th century by Wang Yen.
Mīra
: Mummy in Japanese. According to
Blythe, it is derived from the word myrrh, though a more likely explanation is
that the Japanese adopted the Portuguese word for mummy, “mirra.” The English word comes from the Arabic,
“mumiya,” which means wax, probably from an embalming method.
Mirabilia : In China and Japan, scholars collected tales of marvels or miracles, called ‘mirabilia’ by some authorities. Such marvel tales, folk stories and legends were usually retold by the collecting scholar, sometimes embellishing and usually improving the quality of the story. Some authorities use the term ‘rifacimento’ to describe such retelling or adaptation.
Mirbeau, Octave : French author (1848-1917). He is of interest here for the weird
oriental fantasy, Les Jardins du supplice
( The Torture Garden). This gut-wrenching novel takes the reader
deep into an imaginary China, full of lurid passions and unspeakable
tortures. The introduction says that
rarely does anyone read The Torture
Garden twice.
Mirrors : Fascination with mirrors dates to early Taoism in China where mirrors could get fire from the sun Mirrors play an important role in divination throughout the world, such as the psychomantium in ancient Greece or John Dee's technique for scrying by mirrors. Even apart from its role in the Shinto religion, the mirror has a special place in Japanese tradition.
The mirror appears early in Japanese lore and letters, and it continues to this day. Davis cites the story, “The Soul of a Mirror,” in his study of Japanese myths. A Poison Dragon captured Yayoi, the female soul of a mirror, and compelled her to tempt people to drown themselves. The victim would see her beautiful reflection in the bottom of a well and long to jump to down to her. Fortunately, she escapes the dragon and gives her mirror to a Buddhist Priest who in turn presents it to a shogun for safe keeping. In the end, the mirror brings great fortune to the realm.
In Lafcadio Hearn’s tale, “A Mirror and a Bell," the reader again learns that the mirror is the "Soul of a Woman." Indeed the character for "soul" appears on the backs of many old mirrors. A woman donated an old mirror to a temple to be melted into a new temple bell. She regretted her donation but lacked the money to retrieve it. Even so, of all the donated metal, her mirror alone refused to melt, as she did not wish it to be destroyed. Since everyone knew who the mirror belonged to, she drowned herself out of shame. The mirror now yielded to melting but a legend about the bell and the woman's ghost remained.
Watanabe’s The Japanese and Western Science has a chapter devoted to the Western fascination to the alleged magic properties of Japanese mirrors. Light reflected off the smooth side of a mirror would project an image of the bas-relief design on the back of the mirror. Davis mentions this phenomena as responsible "in some measure for the magical significance of Japanese mirrors."
Davis continues by telling the story of a Japanese Pygmalion. A sculptor, Hidari Jingorō makes a statue of a beautiful woman that he is in love with. He recovers a mirror that the woman dropped and places it in the statue, giving it life. Davis explains that looking into a mirror so many times imbues it with the soul of the person looking into it.
More recently, Edogawa Rampo’s “Hell of Mirrors” is a psychological horror story about man driven insane by a mirror. His fascination with optics leads him to build a glass sphere, large enough for him to climb into. It is silvered on the inside so that he could see infinite reflections of himself. When his servants bring him out the sphere, he is raving mad.
Keij’e briefly recounts an uncredited theory that women who are fond of gazing at their reflection in the mirror are really possessed by a mirror demon. See also Aratsu Kiyome, Metempsychosis, Tsao Chan, Wu Cheng-en.
Miss Lien-Hsiang :
Tale from P’u Song Ling’s Liao Zhai inspired
the film In Love with the Ghost in
Lushan. This is one of the best and
most complex fox maiden tales available.
Ironically, Pu Sung Ling writes that it is merely an outline of the full story that he read in a biography
of a Mr. Sang.
Miss Quarta Hu :
Tale from Pu Song Ling’s Liaozhai filmed as An Erotic Ghost
Story. Yet another fox maiden
story, this one includes a bit of Taoist magic and a strange method of trapping
supernatural creatures in bottles. The
protagonist, Mr. Shang, who lived among books was not destined to marry such an
exotic creature as a fox woman, but he received just compensation for his
friendship with her.
Mr. Vampire : A successful horror/comedy film that became an even more popular TV series in Japan in the 1980’s.
Mizuki, Shigeru : Japanese manga creator and occult expert (b. 1922). Along with Umezu Kazuo, he isconsidered the master of horror comics. Trained at the Musahino Art School, Mizuki lost his left hand during World War II. He made a living by making rental comics, cheap comics produced for mass consumption by the entertainment-deprived youngsters. He also did picture shows or kamishibai on the streets.
He debuted as a comic artist in 1957 with the publication of Rocket Man, an Astroboy-type boy. He became famous for his spooky horror comics, Gegege no Kitarō (Cackling Kitaro) and Akumakun (Devil Boy). The former was originally title Hakaba no Kitaro (Kitaro of the Tomb) because Kitaro was born in the tomb after his mother’s death (see ubume). When Shonen Magazine picked up the title from the rental book it started out in, the title was changed. Kitaro’s late father appears as a ghostly eyeball who often helps him through life. Though not an introspective drama, its fine artwork and storylines maintained its popular for decades.
He has written many serious books on the occult, especially about fairies and ghosts (yokai). He uses traditional Japanese ghosts in his works, though usually in a whimsical, comic vein. In Gegege no Ktarō alone there is a Sunakake Baba (old sand woman), Nek Musume (cat girl), and Konaki Jiji (crying old man).
Mizuko : Literally “water babies”, mizuko are a euphemism for aborted fetuses.
Momiji-Geri : Female ogre of Tagakushi Yami, fails to waylay samurai. (Weird Tales of Old Japan)
Mochizuki, Minetaro : Japanese horror manga creator. His work, Zashiki Onna (Tatami Room Woman), depicts a post-apocalyptic world. The twist is that the survivors face new terrors as they settle down to live ordinary city lives. The woman mentioned in the title is a strange woman who lives next store to the hero and brings a terrifying world into his ordinary life. It’s a major work of psychological horror.
Mononoke : Spirit-possessed inanimate objects. Said to be the Japanese form of poltergeist, this phenomenon usually appears as vengeance seeking kitchen implements, screaming natural objects or walls or doors with lidless eyes. See Ghosts and Inanimate Objects.
Mori, Masako : Japanese novelist. Author of Changing Partners a horror hotel (”Grand Hotel”) story with a mystery behind a secret door.
Mori, Ogai : Japanese novelist (1862-1922). The son of a medical doctor to a daimyo (Japanese lord), he became a military doctor. He is notes for Vita Sexualis (1909) and a long string of historical novels. His connection to horror is that he translated three Edgar Allan Poe tales into Japanese in the late 19th century.
Mori, Yoko : Japanese novelist (1940-1993). She originally studied to be an artist at the Tokyo College of Art. After a stint in the advertising business, she married an Englishman and became a prolific novelist. She is noted for her romantic heroines but made a foray in horror with one or two tales.
Morimura, Sei : Japanese writer. Author of Akuma no hōshoku (The Devil’s Gluttony) Kadokawa best seller.
Moroboshi, Daijirō : Japanese manga creator. Creator of several Cthulhu mythos related comic book collections. His comic story “Ankouku Shinwa” was made into the video, Ankouku Shinwa: Gaki no Shou (Dark Legend, 1990). It featured music by Kenji Kawai of Ghost in the Shell soundtrack fame.
Morse, Edward S. : American zoologist (1838-1925). Long time friend of Percival Lowell, he inspired Lowell to visit the orient in the late 19th century. He wrote books on the architecture of Japanese and Chinese homes, as well as other Asian subjects.
Mujina : Short but powerful Lafcadio Hearn tale from Kwaidan that emphasizes the importance of the human face in Asian culture. A mujina is supernatural being without facial features. The faceless person is perhaps the most terrifying Asian motif and recurs in ghostly lore and modern literature, e.g. Abe Kōbō’s The Face of Another and Tom Kristensen’s “The Vanished Faces.” The face and the mask have a lesser role in the West.
The Chinese Chi I Chi contains a tale related by Willoughby-Meade where a man walking at night stumbles upon a person dressed all in black who has no face. A soothsayer tells him that it is a spirit connected with his ancestors and that it is going to become dangerous. The man refinds it and slays it with his sword, only to find it turns into a stone pillow “in the style of his grandfather’s time.”
Mummy : While recent discoveries show that mummification was practiced in ancient China, mummies do not play a large role in traditional Asian horror. The Western influence introduced the mummy into Japanese literature in the 20th century, as exemplified by Nakajima Atsushi’s 1942 short story, “The Mummy.”
Blyth makes brief reference to mummies in his chapter on Japanese literature. He says that the clerk who goes to collect mummies will take a long time returning, especially if goes to the pleasure quarters in the Yoshiwara. He cites another proverb that says that “a man who collects mummies will become one himself.” This is a sobering idea for the collection-mad Japanese.
As for the Chinese, Willoughby-Meade makes no reference to mummies in his seminal work, Chinese Ghouls and Goblins. Except for zombies, almost all the other horror archetypes abound in Chinese lore, including the were-wolf, vampire and all variations of ghosts. The mummy failed to capture the Asian imagination.
Murakami, Ryomin/Ryoji : Japanese author of Cthulhu mythos tales. Two are “Kane ga Naru Shima” (1981) and “Daijoubu Mai Furendo” (“I’m All Right, My Friend”, 1983).
Murata, Motoi : Japanese horror novelist, author of Trial of a Nightmare, the story of a man and woman doomed to have a false self image.
Mushrooms : In one of the stranger regions of ghostly lore, Iwasaka cites the legend of “The Man-eating Mushroom.” It is a folktale wherein the spirit of a mushroom assumes different shapes and tries to lure human beings to their deaths. Mushrooms can also be omens of death, especially if strange mushrooms appear.
Mystery Fiction : Mystery and horror writing overlaps especially in Japan. The Japanese SF Magazine (March 2000 issue) contained an article about the fusion of mystery and horror. It cited works as diverse as Anna Kavan’s Ice and J.G. Ballard’s The Crystal World as examples before bringing up Ihin (Memento, Kadokawa Horror Bunko) by Wakatake Nanami. It explicitly used the phrase “supernatural horror” printed out in katakana to describe this story of murder and strange happening at a hotel.
