Japandemonium

by Toriyama Sekien

Whoo-hoo! Another book off the reading list! Good job, me! (It’s not as if anyone else is going to congratulate me for my silly endeavours so I have to do it myself, ha ha.)

This is a book on Japanese yokai, illustrated by Toriyama Sekien. It’s more of a picture book than a strictly informative book. Most of the information came from the translator’s notes instead of Sekien’s own notes.

This is not to say that there weren’t interesting tidbits, historical details and folklore. But if you want a — how to put this — more “scientific” book on yokai, I’d recommend Matthew Meyer’s The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, which details the looks, diets, habitats and ways to deal with the various yokai. I can’t vouch for the veracity of the information so, as usual, you need to decide for yourself.

But as always, my real recommendation is to read both.

So that’s two books on yokai down, now I just — need to start writing that ghost detective story based in Japan! *averts eyes*

Well, okay. I’ve already tried starting it but it hasn’t been going well like anything else in my writing endeavours. *sighs*

Jamiru (v.)

. . . a verb, jamiru, that describes something going wrong mid-way through.

Furutsubaki-no-rei

Old trees do many strange things.

Ushinotoki-mairi

The jealousy of delicate womanhood consumed body and soul. This is exemplified by the saying: if you curse someone, dig two graves.

So wait, it wasn’t even about revenge?

As an aside, I once saw a comment about this quote, how stupid it is, because he’s going to need a hell of a lot more graves than just two. I thought, ha ha, fair. If you’re going on a real revenge or curse spree, you’re going to need a lot more graves than two.

Afterword

If poems represent the voice of the human heart, then pictures are voiceless poems.

Shōkera

The folk religion of Kōshin is a mixture of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs that took root somewhere around the 9th century CE. It isn’t widely practised today, but its beliefs hold that all humans are inhabited by “worms” that record all of our good and bad deeds. These “worms” emerge every sixty days to report to the heavens, but can only do so if their humans are asleep. As such, adherents would make sure to stay up until dawn on the final night of every cycle.

You know, I find it so curious that people would make up a belief and then come up with a cheat to that belief. Like, why not just make up a belief that you don’t have to cheat?

Beauty and the Beast

The eldest had married a gentleman, extremely handsome indeed, but so fond of his own person, that he was full of nothing but his own dear self, and neglected his wife. The second had married a man of wit, but he only made use of it to plague and torment every body, and his wife most of all.

∞

. . . it is neither wit nor a fine person in a husband, that makes a woman happy; but virtue, sweetness of temper, and complaisance . . .

∞

Pride, anger, gluttony, and idleness, are sometimes conquered, but the conversion of a malicious and envious mind is a kind of miracle.

∞

. . . their happiness, as it was founded on virtue, was complete.

Chapter XI – Marriage Guests

The newly married pair, indeed, proposed to the Fairy that they should abdicate, and resign their power into the hands of anyone she should select; but that wise being represented to them clearly that they were under as great an obligation to fulfil the destiny which had confided to them the government of a nation as that nation was to preserve for them an unshaken loyalty.

∞

He only ceased to exist because no mortal can live forever.

Chapter X – Royalty from the Fortunate Island

Her beauty and her good conduct were considered by you deserving of that honour. You raised her to the throne, and placed her in a rank from which the lowliness of her birth seemed to have excluded her, but of which she was worthy, by the nobleness of her character and the purity of her mind.

∞

During this period, you lost your dear wife, an affliction which you felt the more sensibly because, in addition to the love with which her beauty had inspired you, you had the greatest respect for the many rare qualities that adorned her mind.

∞

The unhappy pity each other.

∞

Her fury was not less violent because it was suppressed.

∞

Her virtue and beauty equalled her good sense.

∞

I was delighted to find that the cruellest reverses had not been able to affect her tranquillity. On the contrary, by her cheerfulness, by the charm of her conversation, she had succeeded in restoring it to the hearts of her father and her brothers; and I rejoiced to observe that her sentiments were worthy of her birth.

Chapter IX – Revelations of the Past

He invaded my Kingdom with a formidable army. The Queen hastily raised one to oppose him, and, with courage beyond that of her sex, placed herself at the head of her troops, and marched to defend our frontiers.

∞

I knew enough of the world in my own country, to be aware that amongst the wedded portion of the community the happiest were those whose ages and characters assimilated, and that many were much to be pitied who, marrying under opposite circumstances, had found antipathies existing between them which were the source of constant misery.

∞

Her self-love concealed from her all that was actually horrible in her person, and she calculated that her power sufficiently compensated for the loss of a few charms of her youth.

∞

It was cowardice to succumb to the greatest misfortunes, and that with time and courage there was no evil that could not be remedied.

∞

In lieu of yielding to despair, it would be better to seek some remedy for the mischief.

∞

“Patience, perseverance, or all is lost.”

∞

I had determined, Princess, rather to be a Beast again than to abandon the hope of being the husband of so virtuous and charming a maiden. Had the secret of your birth remained for ever a mystery to me, love and gratitude would not less have assured me that in possessing you I was the most fortunate of men!

Mōryō

In the Edo era (1602-1868), human livers, genitals, and brains were used as the basis for a certain medicine believed useful for treating chronic illness. The material was only supposed to be harvested from executed criminals… Theoretically speaking.

…what?

Um, well. It’s not like cannibalism is unheard of either in humans or animals. For example, the tribes in New Guinea and Australia used to eat their own children (…at least until the first half of 20th century). Likewise, in the pre-Columbian America cannibalism was pretty much a stable part of their diet.

One of the ancient Mexican dishes, called tamale, was apparently made by grinding the human remains after a year of his death and burial.

Yeah. That was a thing.

Chapter VIII – Unexpected Guests

“He must have remained in the horrible shape to which he had been transformed, had he not found in the world one only person who possessed virtue and courage equal to her beauty.”

∞

“Do you consider that princesses, who are so by the caprice of fortune, better deserve the high rank in which it has placed them than this young maiden? For my part, I think she should not be prejudiced by an origin from which she has elevated herself by her conduct.”

Chapter VII – The Future of the Beast

“Retire to rest, and assure yourself that you will be as happy as your good heart renders you worthy to be.”

Chapter VI – Beauty’s Visit to Her Family

“Ha!” exclaimed Beauty, almost angrily, “know that I would lay down my life to save his, and that this Beast, who is only one in form, has a heart so humane, that he should not be persecuted for a deformity which he refrains from rendering more hideous by his actions. I will not repay his kindness with such black ingratitude.”

∞

“It is much better to have an amiable husband than one whose only recommendation is a handsome person. How many girls are compelled to marry rich brutes, much more brutish than the Beast, who is only one in form, and not in his feelings or his actions?”

∞

It is easier to reason with love than to conquer it.

∞

Everybody evinced an an equal impatience to see her and was each as much charmed with her intellect as with her beauty.

⋅ Nota Bene ⋅

(You know, Angel Densetsu by Norihiro Yagi and Kimi ni Todoke by Karuho Shiina are basically just modern versions of this fairy tale. Well, except people in those stories were just being silly rather than the main character being cursed into a beast because he refused to marry an old woman who took care of him at fourteen. I’m not sure about the fourteen part but he was practically a child, that much I remember.)

Chapter V – Exploring the Palace of the Beast

So delightful a life ought to have perfectly contented her, but we weary of everything. The greatest happiness fades when it is continual, derived always from the same source, and we find ourselves exempted from fear and from hope.

∞

“Courage, Beauty; be a model of female generosity; show yourself to be as wise as you are charming; do not hesitate to sacrifice your inclination to your duty. You are taking the true path to happiness. You will be blessed, provided you are not misled by deceitful appearances.”

Chapter IV – Dreams

“Excelling all other women as far in the qualities of your mind as you excel them in beauty, we shall be perfectly happy together.”

Chapter I – A Tempest at Sea

For some time they flattered themselves that, when their father’s intention became known, their lovers, who had hitherto sued in vain, would be only too happy to find they were inclined to listen to them. They imagined that the many admirers of each would be all striving to obtain the preference. They thought if they wished only for a husband they would obtain one; but they did not remain very long in such a delightful illusion. They had lost their greatest attractions when, like a flash of lightning, their father’s splendid fortune had disappeared, and their time for choosing had departed with it. Their crowd of admirers vanished the moment of their downfall; their beauty was not sufficiently powerful to retain one of them.

∞

The youngest girl, however, displayed greater perseverance and firmness in their common misfortune. She bore her lot cheerfully, and with strength of mind much beyond her years: not but what, at first, she was truly melancholy. Alas! Who would not have felt such misfortunes? But, after deploring her father’s ruin, could she do better than resume her former gaiety, make up her mind to the position she was placed in, and forget a world which she and her family had found so ungrateful, and the friendship of which she was so fully persuaded was not to be relied upon in the time of adversity?

Anxious to console herself and her brothers by her amiable disposition and sprightliness, there was nothing she did not do to amuse them.

∞

This young person was much more fitted to shine in society than either of them. She was a perfectly beautiful young creature; her good temper rendered her adorable. A generous and tender heart was visible in all her words and actions. Quite as much alive to the reverses that had just overwhelmed her family as either of her sisters; by strength of mind — which is not common in her sex — she concealed her sorrow and rose superior to her misfortunes.

253

What shall I leave

behind?

The flowers of spring,

the cuckoo of summer and

the leaves dyed by autumn.

222

Everything begat by circumstances

dies when circumstances change.

219

Reading a million books

does not compare to understanding a single sentence.

If someone asks, say:

“Know your mind as it is.”