Sirens panel follow-up post
Oct. 8th, 2010 11:31Welcome Sirens people! It was great to meet you, and thanks for coming to the panel! (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coraa has panel notes here, for those of you looking to refresh your memories.) The following is an extremely brief introduction to books in English about Japanese folklore, as well as books featuring Japanese folklore.
Yanagita Kunio, Legends of Tono
Lafcadio Hearn, Japanese Tales
Michael Dylan Foster, Pandemonium and Parade
Yanagita Kunio founded folklore studies in Japan in the 1910s; Lafcadio Hearn was an American emigré to the country writing a few decades before Yanagita started out (I'm aware of at least one English-language manga adaptation of Hearn's stories as well). Foster's book is academic, but it's written in a very clear style, and it's invaluable for his look at youkai and youkai culture in Japan in four successive periods since the 1600s--and it has pictures (as well as a great bibliography)!
Natsuhiko Kyogoku, The Summer of the Ubume
CLAMP, xxxHOLiC
Yuki Urushibara, Mushishi
Shigeru Mizuki, Shigeru Mizuki's Ghosts and Demons
Kyogoku is a novelist who's famous (and award-winning) in Japan for his novels incorporating elements of youkai lore and folktales into his modern and present-day novels; The Summer of the Ubume is the only one available in English so far. The rest are all manga creators: CLAMP's xxxHOLiC is a beautifully drawn and written (and beautifully translated) manga about a shop in Tokyo that grants wishes, many of whose clients are youkai themselves. Mushishi is set in a sort of alternate late Edo/early Meiji period, following a folklorist-expert character named Ginko as he wanders through the rural countryside solving people's problems in interacting with the otherworld of mushi. Mizuki Shigeru is famous in Japan as a youkai expert and manga creator; none of his manga have been translated, but if you can track down the book, it explores many older youkai, as well as some of the ones he invented himself.
Karen Smyers, The Fox and the Jewel
Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft
Steven Heine, Shifting Shape, Shifting Text
These books are more solidly academic, but they're not too jargon-y and just reading them presents one with a wealth of tidbits, as well as a good overview of how some of these ideas are interpreted today and have been interpreted throughout Japanese history.
Finally, a lot of older Japanese literature, including the oldest story collections, are treasure troves of folklore and mythology mixed up with history. It can be hard to track down these books, but many of them were translated in the 1920s, 30s, and 60s, and they're well worth reading. If you're going to read The Tale of Genji, which is a fascinating snapshot of how people lived with the otherworld in the Heian period as well as being the first novel in the world (and written by a woman!), make sure to read the Royal Tyler translation, as it has the most helpful appendices and is the most readable.
coraa has panel notes here, for those of you looking to refresh your memories.) The following is an extremely brief introduction to books in English about Japanese folklore, as well as books featuring Japanese folklore. Yanagita Kunio, Legends of Tono
Lafcadio Hearn, Japanese Tales
Michael Dylan Foster, Pandemonium and Parade
Yanagita Kunio founded folklore studies in Japan in the 1910s; Lafcadio Hearn was an American emigré to the country writing a few decades before Yanagita started out (I'm aware of at least one English-language manga adaptation of Hearn's stories as well). Foster's book is academic, but it's written in a very clear style, and it's invaluable for his look at youkai and youkai culture in Japan in four successive periods since the 1600s--and it has pictures (as well as a great bibliography)!
Natsuhiko Kyogoku, The Summer of the Ubume
CLAMP, xxxHOLiC
Yuki Urushibara, Mushishi
Shigeru Mizuki, Shigeru Mizuki's Ghosts and Demons
Kyogoku is a novelist who's famous (and award-winning) in Japan for his novels incorporating elements of youkai lore and folktales into his modern and present-day novels; The Summer of the Ubume is the only one available in English so far. The rest are all manga creators: CLAMP's xxxHOLiC is a beautifully drawn and written (and beautifully translated) manga about a shop in Tokyo that grants wishes, many of whose clients are youkai themselves. Mushishi is set in a sort of alternate late Edo/early Meiji period, following a folklorist-expert character named Ginko as he wanders through the rural countryside solving people's problems in interacting with the otherworld of mushi. Mizuki Shigeru is famous in Japan as a youkai expert and manga creator; none of his manga have been translated, but if you can track down the book, it explores many older youkai, as well as some of the ones he invented himself.
Karen Smyers, The Fox and the Jewel
Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft
Steven Heine, Shifting Shape, Shifting Text
These books are more solidly academic, but they're not too jargon-y and just reading them presents one with a wealth of tidbits, as well as a good overview of how some of these ideas are interpreted today and have been interpreted throughout Japanese history.
Finally, a lot of older Japanese literature, including the oldest story collections, are treasure troves of folklore and mythology mixed up with history. It can be hard to track down these books, but many of them were translated in the 1920s, 30s, and 60s, and they're well worth reading. If you're going to read The Tale of Genji, which is a fascinating snapshot of how people lived with the otherworld in the Heian period as well as being the first novel in the world (and written by a woman!), make sure to read the Royal Tyler translation, as it has the most helpful appendices and is the most readable.