Yōkai Boom

Yokai are spirits or supernatural entities in Japanese folklore. Originally these creatures came from the 8th century in Japan. Tales of horror, humor, adventure, and mischievousness permeate these old stories. Yōkai represents many urban legends within Japanese society and often are associated with unexplainable events. Yōkai were popular in medieval Japanese Society but truly began to flourish with the advent of the printing press, which allowed for the widespread publications of Yōkai. The popularity of Yōkai would wane in the late 19th century during the Imperial Japanese Era and would stay in the doldrums until the end of World War II. World War II caused a great upheaval in Japanese Society that caused a nostalgia for older culture, which brought about the start of the Yōkai Boom that would follow. The Yōkai Boom is the massive integration of Yōkai into popular Japanese culture starting in 1960 to today. In the next few pages I will be illustrating what a Yōkai is, and what made the Yōkai Boom happen.