Yakku : Hindu demons associated with diseases. After loosing a crucial battle, they are no longer able to materialize on Earth, but they still have malevolent influence, disease, over mankind.
Yama uba : Dwelling in the remote mountains of Japan , these snow women are hideous, old crones who live off human flesh Like Western trolls, they can smell a human victim from miles away.
Yamada, Futaro ; (b. 1922) Japanese horror writer. Kikai shosetsu shu (1978) and Dani zukan (1978). One of his novels was filmed as Samurai Reincarnation (1981) and more recently Reborn from Hell (1996)
1998’s Kunoichi The Lady Ninj was based on his novel Yagyu Ninpocho, with a massive amount of magical effects.
Yamada, Masaki : Japanese science fiction author. He is a member of the SFWJ and contributed the story Shūmatsu Kyokumen (literally: Closed Curved Surface) to the Cthulhu mythos.
Yamagishi, Ryōko : Japanese Shōjo manga creator. Not ordinarily thought of as a horror comic creator, Yamagishi added many supernatural elements to her work, especially in her historical masterpiece, Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi (Heaven’s Son in the Land of the Rising Sun).
Yamamoto, Hiroshi : Japanese
author Cthulhu mythos tales. He is the author of Diable no ma (Diable de LaPlace).
Yamamoto, Sugoro : Japanese author of Fukagawa anrakutei filmed as Inochi bonifuro (Inn of Evil 1971).
Yanagita, Kunio : Japanese folklorist (1875-1962). He led the minzokugaku (follkloric studies) movement to collect and preserve Japanese folktales, many of which have supernatural themes. Yanagita pioneered the idea that popular tales and beliefs were worth serious study. His works are collected in a 36 volume set, Teihon Yanagita Kunio shu.
In Susan Napier’s The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, She quotes a translation of a ghost folktale that Yanagita collected.
Yano, Kentaro : Yano is known for a wide range of manga including the continuation of the story Toppu o nerae (Gunbuster; Aim for the Top, animated by Gainax) called Toppu o nerae: Next Generation. He created a Cthulhu mythos manga called Lamia.
Yao Nai :
Chinese writer. (1732-1815). He wrote the Kuwen tzu leitsuan (Classified anthology of ancient literature)
which recorded most supernatural or extraordinary events.
Yasha : Vampire bat from Japanese mythology. It is believed to be the reincarnation of a woman who could not control her temper and thus was reborn to a lower status.
Yasō Kidan : Japanese weird story collection, literally Strange Stories from a Night Window. One of its tales is summarized by Blyth. It tells of a samurai accosted by finely dressed men who are three inches tall. The samurai kills them all and he later finds that they were all rat goblins.
Yi Ryuk : Korean writer and scholar (1438-1498). A predecessor of Im Bang, he collected folk stories, some dealing with supernatural themes.
Yofune nushi : Shinto serpent god.
Yōkai : Japanese ghost, literally “bewitching apparition” as opposed to the more generic term for ghosts, yurei, which means spirit of the dead. Yōkai can be a one of a variety of monsters, goblins or other creatures such as kappa, tengu and the bizarre rokurokubi.
The highly regarded Japan Foundation enumerated four characteristics of yōkai in the article “Supernatural Apparitions and Domestic Life in Japan.” The first is that they only appear at night. Second, an object or other entity may turn into one when it grows old. Third, they frequently bear malice against human beings, usually out of vengeance. Fourth, a special type of yōkai is known as an oni, which is a demon or orge.
Yokaigaku : The serious study of ghosts and ghostly phenomena. In the late 18th century, the painter and scholar, Toriyama Sekien, attempted the daunting task of classifying all known species of ghosts.
More recently, the early 20th century scholar, Inoue Enryō was noted for his extensive yokaigaku.
Yokohama, Yasuko : (b. 1965) Japanese critic. Author of Edo Tokyo no kaidan bunka no seiritsu to hensen: jukyuseiki o chushin ni.
Yokumizo, Seishi : (1902-81) Japanese mystery writer. (Yokomizo Prize for Detective Fiction). Mentioned in Blood Read as Japanese techno gothic for his vampire novel Kyuketsu Ga (Vampire Moth or The Death’s Head Vampire, 1939) . Toho made a film from this novel in 1956.
Yokomizo has a large cult following in Japan. In 1981, the year of Yokumizo’s death, the first Yokomizu Seishi Prize for mystery literature was awarded in Japan.
This may be seen as another example of the blurring of mystery and horror genres in Japanese popular literature, but Yokomizo started as a full out mystery or detective novel writer. His first publications were nonfiction writings about pharmaceuticals, but by the 1930’s he was writing full blown detective fiction, Shikamen, The Constant Demon and The Ax, the Koto and the Chrysanthemum.
His vampire story Dokuro Kengyou (Skull Business?) was made into a Japanese television movie in 1982.
Yong, Jin (b. 1924) Modern Chinese fantasy writer. Creator of popular flying swordsman books or wuxia xiaoshuo (“warrior stories”), the subject of Chinese comics and Hong Kong films. He stopped writing warrior stories in 1972.
Yoshimura, Tatsuya : Japanese mystery writer. A prolific, best-selling author, she sometimes lapses into horror, as with the story “Ghost Riders” published in 1990.
Yoshitoshi,
Tsukioka : Japanese artist (1839-1892).
Noted here for New Forms of
Thirty-Six Ghosts, a series of paintings based on classical themes such as
“Death Stone of Nasu Moor”(Tamamo no Mae). Other ghostly prints
include “The Heron Maiden,” “Kiyohime Changing into a Serpent at Hidaka River”
Yoshitoshi studied under the Edo master artist, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, who specialized in graphic battle scenes. Yoshitoshi suffered from mentality instability and fits of depression, especially severe near the end of his life. It was during his last years that he created the Thirty-Six Ghosts series.
Besides his gruesome and violent prints, he is known for the delightfully colored night series, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. Even there he could not resist supernatural themes, for one print (“Hazy Moon – Kumasaka”) from Moon features the ghost of the criminal Kumasaka dressed as Noh actor.
Yoshiyuki, Junnosuke : Japanese writer (b. 1924). Author of Kaidan no susume (1976).
Yotsuya Kaidan :
Kabuki version of the story of Oiwa,
Japan’s most famous female ghost, written
by Tsuruya Nanboku IV in 1825. It is the interweaving of three tales of murder and horror. The first two involve two servants who
committed two unconnected murders on the same day and their masters’ savage
revenge. The third is the story of
Oiwa, the vengeful wife whose legend became an immortal classic of Japanese
drama, art, and film. With such lurid
material, the play was bound to be a success and collector prints of Oiwa began
when the play opened in Osaka in 1826, beginning with Shunkosai Hokushu’s Ghost of Oiwa.
It was filmed as early as 1927 (Irohagana Yotsuya Kaidan) and again in 1928 as Iemon, both in Japan.
The story is best presented in English in James De Benneville’s 1917 book, Tales of the Toklugawa I: The Yotsuya Kwaidan or I’Iwai Inari ; Philadelphia 1917, Lippincott. Sadly this book is long out of print.
Yu Ming Lu : Tales of Light and Dark, a collection of Chinese tales by Liu Yi-ching (403-444).
Yu Pao : Fourth century Chinese writer. He wrote a 30 volume series of books called ‘Supernatural Researches.’ Though little known today, Pu Sung-Ling refers to him in the introduction to the lIaozhai.
Yuan Mei : (1716-1798) Chinese short story writer, essayist and poet. A successful civil servant who retired young to lead a literary life, he held progressive views for his time especially about women. He had followers of both sexes and he advocated women’s rights, education and freedom. He even felt that poetry should be a free form of expression, a philosophy called “hsing-ling” or natural genius. He said that the primary aim of poetry is pleasure.
His noted supernatural work is Tzu pu yu (What the Master Would Not Discuss). In this case, the master is Confucius who evidently did not believe in the supernatural. Yuan Mei’s book contains ghost stories.
One tale is the story of Wang who meets up with a demon posing as his cousin. They travel together to wish their mutual Uncle a happy birthday, but the demon keeps Wang awake at night by emitting light. Wang should have been alerted to his companion’s demonic nature by his huge tongue that glowed red. The demon ate an elderly servant before Wang called upon his close personal friend, the God of War to save the household.
Another tale’s main character is Yuan Mei’s brother Yuan Shu, which is an early example of suspension of disbelief. Yuan Shu spends the night in yet another haunted inn which were in plentiful supply in Chien Lung era in China. He describes a number of dreadful visitations: a green dwarf and giant, the faces of 20 leering men and one enormous face to top them all.
Recently a new collection of Yuan Mei tales appeared in English: Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories by Yuan Mei (1996). Apparently, Yuan’s stories were a bit too racy and irreverent for the cognoscenti of his day. His advanced views on the value and rights of women alone were revolutionary and his wit often turned against the accepted customs and mores of his ancient culture.
Yuan hung chih :
Early Chinese collection, known in English as Accounts of Avenging Spirits, written by Yen Chih-tui in the 6th
century.
Yuki-Onna : Woman of the snows, from Shinto traditional folklore, first recorded by Lafcadio Hearn in Kwaidan, and later in the Kobayashi film version of Kwaidan. She accosts strangers on wintry mountain roads and asks them to hold her baby. Her icy breath is capable of killing the unwary.
Yumemakara, Baku : Japanese occult writer, author of Onmyouji based on the life of Heian era sorcerer Seimei Abe who is also depicted in the graphic story Heisei Koshaku Abe Seimei Den (Heisei Era Parable on Abe Seimei), illustrated by Minami Shinbo. He also wrote Jogen no Tsuki wo Taberu Shishi. He is also the editor of Shihi-non no Abe Seimei (1998), containing seven different stories about Abe by various writers.
Yumemakara is also author of the two long running book series. One is a werewolf(?) yarn called Garouden (Hungry Wolf) now up to eleven volumes. Another is Ommyoji (Sorcerer, Scola ) a manga series illustrated by Okano Reiko, which has eight of twelve planned volumes. His Kamigami no sanrei (God of the Mountain Top) was made into an NHK radio drama.
His novel Gakidama (Baby Goblin) was made into a video film in 1985.
Yumeno, Kyusaku : Japanese novelist (1889-1936). Sadly unknown, i.e. untranslated, in the West, he was an outstanding occult and fantasy writer, noted for Dogura Magura (1935, Sorceries), available also as a manga. Reminiscent of the recent film, Dark City, the narrator wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. He finds out that he was the subject of an experiment by a now dead psychiatrist and the doctors work to bring back his memory. Its not clear whether he was a psychotic killer or the victim of strange psychological experiment. He is told that he killed his mother and wife and that he inherited his psychotic tendencies from a insane ancestor.
Here is a cross breeding of the “ancient curse” of gothic literature with the modern genetic inheritance common in Japanese biological horrors. Yumeno described the horrors of life with great intensity. According to Susan Napier, his work contains “deranged, amnesiac and sexually ambivalent characters” that “move through nightmare settings that finally suggest the twentieth-century world to be an insane anti-Utopia.” Napier connects Yumeno to a long history of Japanese dystopian visions.
As an interesting side note, Dogura Magura is a typographic and linguistic curiosity. A highly original work, the author used furigana heavily to help the reader with his complex use of the Japanese language. If readers of its native language needed help, the possibility of an adequate translation into an Occidental language seems remote.
Yun, Chi : Chinese writer (1724-1805). He was included in the Italian anthology Spettri e fantasmi cinesi (Chinese Spirits and Phantoms. Pub: Edizioni Theoria, Roma-Napoli) .
Yurei : Ghost usually a vengeful spirit or one with unfinished business on earth. Originally, yurei were indistinguishable in appearance from the living person, usually dressed in white funeral attire, a plain white kimono or one inscribed with Buddhist sutras. In the 18th century, yurei in the popular culture began to appear with no feet. Some attribute this to the depictions of the popular artist Maruyama Ōkyo. In the theatre, yurei wore long kimono and had the signature outstretched arms and limp hands.
Yureisen : Japanese phantom ship, akin to the Flying Dutchman or Sora Tobu Yureisen.
Yūreiyashiki : Japanese term meaning haunted house. This is often the subject of horror films, such as the 1970 vampire doll movie, Yūreiyashiki no kyofu: Chi o sū ningyō (Haunted House Horror: Bloodsucking Doll).
Yūsuke, Takashi : Japanese writer. He is the author of Chirping of the Angel in the Kadokawa Horror series.