The is a database of ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

'' and mystery stories which have been collected from

Japanese folklore Japanese folklore encompasses the informally learned folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people as expressed in its oral traditions, customs, and material culture. In Japanese, the term is used to describe folklore. The academic study ...

. The database is published by

International Research Center for Japanese Studies The , or Nichibunken (日文研), is an inter-university research institute in Kyoto. Along with the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, and the National Museum of Ethnology, it is one of the Natio ...

. The prototype was created on March 19, 2002, and the first live version was released on June 20, 2002. the project supervisor is Kazuhiko Komatsu ( 小松和彦), a Japanese

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

who is a professor of the study of ''yōkai''. The database includes verbal information, without visual information. Data are collected from: * Akira Takeda ( 竹田旦) "''民俗学関係雑誌文献総覧''" 1978 * "''日本随筆大成''" 1975 - 1978 *

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

"''妖怪名彙''" * Books of histories of Japanese

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

s. For each item, in the database has an abstract of around 100 characters. The full text is searchable, and the database can be searched by name or the region where the item was found.

External links

怪異・妖怪伝承データベース
- on

Online databases Japanese folklore Databases in Japan Databases by subject {{Japan-culture-stub