Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki's Supernatural Parade [Hardcover]

Manga titan Shigeru Mizuki brings Japans most entertaining myths to the modern age


As travelers approach a lush, cedar forestthe soft floor and woodland scent palpable from Shigeru Mizukis fecund drawingsomething falls from the trees with a thud: a human head, twelve times average size. A dozen more heads follow, peering at the travelers with maniacal laughter, before retreating back into the woods. A hallucination? No, this is Tohoku No Tsurubeotoshi.

An earthworm, larger than a human, floats in the air, backlit from window lights ensconced by shadowy darkness. Sontsurumajestic on the page in Shigeru Mizukis delicate ink lines and bold colorsis no worm, but a yokai who haunts families across generations, wriggling between their skin and muscles.

And then there is Shirime, a city dwelling trickster who shouts, A moment, sir! only to then lift their kimono to reveal their unusual rumpa giant, glowing eyeball where one would otherwise expect a crack.

Indeed, not all the yokai in the pages of Yokai: Shigeru Mizukis Supernatural Parade are there to cause fright. Like Mizuki himself, yokai often have a playful spirit, which Mizuki explores with joy in this stunning collection, which contains one hundred new, lavish, full page yokai illustrations, with biographies for each.

Yokai: Shigeru Mizukis Supernatural Parade is the companion book to Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki, and includes supplementary writing by acclaimed Mizuki scholar and translator Zack Davisson.A glimpse into an artists mind, and possibly a front-row seat into how he created his manga. Rebecca Silverman, Anime News NetworkShigeru Mizuki (19222015) was one of Japans most respected artists. A creative prodigy, he lost an arm in World War II. After the war, Mizuki became lÓD