Yokai Storyland: Illustrated Books from the YUMOTO Koichi Collection

In response to great demand from readers wanting to know more details about the meaning, background and stories behind each illustration, this time we have focused on collecting Yokai story books and manga. Very rare, never-before-seen materials (books/manga) are showcased in an immersive full-size, full-page format to give a more realistic feeling. They are all accompanied by full translations and notes to make the content of the manga more accessible to readers. Yokai Storyland will be a treasure trove of information for those who are eager to know everything in detail about Yokai stories. It also presents Japanese culture from a whole new and different perspective.

This book is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1 explores the world of Yokai stories in the Edo and Meiji periods by introducing seven stories. Chapter 2 sheds a light on a quirky manga from the Edo period titled Jinmen-Zoshi (The Book of Faces). This manga was briefly introduced in Yokai Wonderland but only in a few pages with small images. But in this book, it is introduced in full-size, full-page format and with a full translation. All the characters have the same comical look, which is supposed to be cute but actually gives an uncanny, strange, and even frightening impression. The art works show these strange characters entertaining themselves in the city of Edo, but little is actually known about The Book of Faces beyond these depictions, including the origins of these characters. Chapter 3 is a Yokai encyclopedia featuring characters selected from the book, fully introduced and explained.

Author
YUMOTO Koichi is a former chief curator of Kawasaki City Museum and a collector of yokai art. In 2019, with his donation of more than 5,000 pieces from his collection, Miyoshi Mononoke Museum, the only museum focused on yokai, was opened and has been gathered since a lot of yokai fans around the world. While publishing a number of titles on yokai, he has helped organizers to hold exhibitions in Madrid and Rome.