Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien

A fascinating, scholarly, beautifully illustrated, miscellanea of strange beasts, quelling demons, and otherworldly apparitions. JapandemoniumIllustrated will instruct you, amaze you, and transport you to a quintessential realm of Japanese lore. -- Guillermo del Toro, filmmakerSuch beautiful nightmares -- why bother to wake up? Long before Pokémon took to the streets, the Japanese saw monsters everywhere and in everything. Scholarly without being monstrously studious, Sekien's classic compendia of outlandish everyday demons compiled in this one fiendishly clever volume is sure to enchant even the most rational readers (poor misguided souls!) I sleep less now that I recognize the tenjo-name behind the spots on the ceiling. -- Alfred Birnbaum, editor/translator of Monkey Brain SushiJapanese folklore abounds with bizarre creatures collectively referred to as the yokai ― the ancestors of the monsters populating Japanese film, literature, manga, and anime. Artist Toriyama Sekien (1712-88) w