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Hikketsu no monogatari (A Tale of Calligraphy Brushes, 1480) is a medieval instructional fiction that reveals the practices and rituals of military households as well as customs and manners of the late fifteenth century. The tale is extremely rare among more than four hundred existing otogizōshi in that the author as well as its completion and copied dates are known. While the tale is didactic and adopts a question and answer format, it is simultaneously humorous, with the main characters being a long-lived nun called shiro bikuni (literally "white nun") or happyaku bikuni (literally "eight hundred nun") and a pack of proper-behaving racoon dogs (tanuki). The legends of happyaku bikuni exist all over Japan. Many legends tell of a young woman from Wakasa Province who unknowingly ate a mermaid's flesh, which kept her forever youthful in appearance. She decided to become a Buddhist nun. After eight hundred years she returned to Wakasa, and there she entered a cave to live the remainder of her time and expire. According to Tokuda Kazuo, Hikketsu no monogatari is the first literature that documents a happyaku bikuni legend. Hikketsu no monogatari is a treasure house of what to know and do (or not do) in medieval Japan, some of which still applies to present-day Japanese society. The present translation is, though partial due to the limited space, the first English translation of Hikketsu no monogatari. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of legends and rituals centered on oni (demons) as a mode of place-making in early modern Japan. Focusing on evidence from Shinano (present-day Nagano prefecture), it begins with medieval oni narratives centered on Mount Togakushi and then turns toward Edo period adaptations that ushered in a host of new sites. I argue that this type of engagement with popular narratives played a vital role in place-making strategies by fostering new modes of ritual, economy, and identity as well as connections with the rest of the country. My analysis focuses on a twofold process by which these developments took place: first, the creation of local legends inspired from well-known oni tales; and second, the implementation of Buddhist rituals that promoted the legends while simultaneously placating the malignant spirits they resurrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A yamauba (mountain witch) is often portrayed as a mountain-dwelling old woman with a taste for human flesh. The appellation yamauba came into existence in the medieval period. The yamauba's predecessors are oni-like (demonlike) as well as mountain-deity-like beings. A yamauba herself is considered a type of oni, and yamauba and oni-woman are often used interchangeably in various texts. Although malevolent yamauba in such folktales as Kuwazu nyōbō (The Wife Who Didn't Eat), Ushikata to yamauba (Ox-Cart Puller and Mountain Witch), and Sanmai no ofuda (The Three Lucky Charms) are contrasted with the benevolent yamauba that appear in Ubakawa (Old Woman's Skin), Komebuku Awabuku (Komebuku and Awabuku), and Hanayo no hime (Blossom Princess), there is a complementary relationship between the good and evil yamauba. Their stories possess a complementary narrative format as well, and the duality of the yamauba is simply two sides of the same coin. This article also addresses how and why the yamauba's traits came into being. While the Noh play Yamanba ("Yamauba") is an indispensable text in understanding the medieval yamauba and beyond, I also consider the Noh play Kurozuka (Black Mound) a critical text in the formation of the yamauba's image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the connection between ghostly apparitions and victimization in the Okiku heroin in Japanese legends which are deemed to be inspired by the idea of cursed house built on damp lands.

This article explores a cycle of legends popular in Japan from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Featuring a deadly confrontation between a tanuki ("raccoon dog") and a steam train, these narratives enact a conflict between a traditional animal of Japanese folk belief and a new technology that was rapidly transforming the countryside; they articulate anxiety about, and resistance to, the burgeoning infrastructure of modernity and the changes it would bring to the natural and cultural environments. Furthermore, as narratives of haunting, in which restless memories of the past disturb the easy flow of the present, these tales allow us to productively consider the relationship between time and place while also gesturing to the way tales of haunting can assume not only an affective quality, but political and ideological shades as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legend could be an umbrella term as the legend is the most complete form of a sequence that could be regional, national or international legend collection (Linda Degh). The legend can be characterized as the conveyor of information that concerns subjective human experience. Each legend informs, explains, instructs, warns, or exemplifies through the telling of an extraordinary experience, which becomes the core of the legend itself. Multiple channels open to disseminate the important messages carried in the plot: one can find references about geography (emphasizing the local color); history (creating an accurate view of the most popular historical characters in the eyes of common people); art (providing information about how certain sculptures or paintings have been created); religion (showing the folk's perspective on religion or on the characters who have shaped the religious life in certain cultural areas); agriculture (supplying useful advice how and when to plant different plants) etc. The examples in this paper refer solely to the Japanese legends, as narrative units, as well as cultural constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the heroic narratives of the Edo period scroll paintings, establishment of modern imperial Japan, and the connection between ghostly apparitions and victimization in the Okiku legends.

This article examines the tropes of "otherness" embedded in Japanese myths and legends in which the protagonist has a physical or intellectual disability to uncover the sociohistorical attitudes toward such people in Japan. Using the theory of semiotics, I will explicate the narrative signifiers of "the Other" represented in Japanese mythology; examine the binary perceptions of disability in ancient myths, medieval literature, and latter-day folklore in Japan; and demonstrate how perceptions have changed historically. I argue that some of these antique perceptions of the Other that have survived in contemporary Japanese consciousness may be hampering our effort to understand human variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]