About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of California Press

ISBN-100520253620

ISBN-139780520253629

eBay Product ID (ePID)66186620

Product Key Features

Number of Pages312 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NamePandemonium and Parade : Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai

Publication Year2008

SubjectFolklore & Mythology, Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Supernatural

TypeTextbook

AuthorMichael Dylan Foster

Subject AreaBody, Mind & Spirit, Social Science

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.8 in

Item Weight14.4 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2007-050923

ReviewsThis outstanding volume is a welcome addition to English-language resources on Japan's folk culture. Showing familiarity with Japanese scholarship and vernacular culture, Pandemonium and Parade finds the rationale for continuing interest in the y_kai world in everyday needs and concerns., A provocative addition to the small body of scholarship in English on monsters, the mysterious, and the supernatural in Japan from the early modern period to the present. This timely book . . . offers English readers their first sustained consideration of yõkai . . . from the perspectives of folklore studies and anthropology. Engagingly written from its touching preface to its last sentence, Pandemonium and Parade draws on and converses with an extensive body of Japanese scholarship on yõkai ., "Whoever thinks that a scholarly book cannot be "fun" has not yet read Michael Foster's Pandemonium and Parade . His work constitutes a rollicking exploration of the seventeenth- through twentieth-century worlds of y_kai , a broadly inclusive term for the phantasmagoria of monsters, ghosts, mysterious apparitions, and inexplicable phenomena that have animated the Japanese cultural landscape for much of the past thousand years. Foster's book is thoughtfully conceived and carefully researched, and it is written in a graceful, occasionally journalistic style that is both suitable to its subject and a pleasure to read.", _One of the most theoretically nuanced and interesting interpretations of Japan_s experience of modernity and post-modernity . . . extremely readable._, Rich and refreshing . . . engaging and spiritedly written . . . Foster's writing and attitude toward his topic gracefully embrace the two poles of the scholarly and the ludic that he attributes to y_kai discourse through the ages.

Dewey Edition22

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal398/.450952

Table Of ContentList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Japanese Names and Terms 1. Introduction to theWeird 2. Natural History of theWeird: Encyclopedias, Spooky Stories, and the Bestiaries of Toriyama Sekien 3. Science of theWeird: Inoue EnryO, Kokkuri, and Human Electricity 4. Museum of theWeird: Modernity, Minzokugaku, and the Discovery of YOkai 5. Media of theWeird: Mizuki Shigeru and Kuchi-sake-onna 6. YOkai Culture: Past, Present, Future Notes Bibliography Index

SynopsisWater sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yôkai 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 yôkai 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., Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as y kai 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 y kai 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.

LC Classification NumberGR340.F67 2009