Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yokai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This book offers a history of the strange and mysterious in Japan and seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines, and movies.

"At once playful and profound, scholarly and scintillating, Pandemonium and Parade not only records but also enacts the uncanny presence of yokai in Japanese history. Seen through the lens of yokai, this book richly considers how the passing of time evokes both awe and anxiety."—Anne Allison, author of Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination

Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yokai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines, and movies, exploring their meanings in the Japanese cultural imagination and offering an abundance of valuable and, until now, understudied material. Michael Dylan Foster tracks yokai over three centuries, from their appearance in seventeenth-century natural histories to their starring role in twentieth-century popular media. Focusing on the intertwining of belief and commodification, fear and pleasure, horror and humor, he illuminates different conceptions of the "natural" and the "ordinary" and sheds light on broader social and historical paradigms - and ultimately on the construction of Japan as a nation.