Mickey-san!!!

One of the greatest assets I had working as an ALT in Japan was dozens and dozens of handmade karuta cards.

Popular in most Japanese schoolyards, karuta cards can be used for any number of various games, the most popular (at least amongst ALTs) being the 'Recognition' type games (you teach them the alphabet, spread out the cards, each with a letter, and then watch as the kids fight over the 'B' when you call it out).

I had all sorts - animals, shapes, fruits, etc. - but I never had any as awesome as these! Found at a suburban Tokyo flea market by a fellow gaijen (though I'll confess we've never met), these cards seem to have been made for me. Japan + Animation + Yokai!


Mickey seen here getting along quite well with one of the hundreds of various Japanese spirits.


And here again, in quite different company. Apparently "ano ne no ossan" translates into something like "Mr. You Know Who." I won't make any assumptions, but the mustache is certainly suspicious.

Mickey is joined by a few other recognizable characters (Japan, well outside Disney's jurisdiction, tends to 'borrow' from them a lot).


Donald Duck, with neighboring "American Soldier".


Pop-Eye and Tarzan make a rather unexpected appearance, though I'm sure these were in circulation well before "Stitchu" won the hearts of all pre-teen schoolgirls.


And there's been no end to the appropriation of characters as you can see from this 1980's menko card featuring E.T. alongside 2001's Discovery.

Spirit Photography

I’ve mentioned my obsession with yokai in previous blogs. You may have also noticed I’m rather fond of photography. So, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the two came together to form...

Today’s blog!

My second year living in Kurihara-shi, I set out to produce a series of photographs capturing modern rural Japan while subtly showcasing a specific yokai in each image. I had planned for a series of at least eight photographs; only three were finished.


Karakasa

One of my favorite yokai. The leg was created from Super Sculpey, armature wire and hand-painted. The geta I made myself from some scraps of wood and cloth. The setting is the ‘lost umbrella’ bin from Kannari Junior High’s copy room. All compositing and shadows were done in Photoshop.


Yuki-onna

This shoot was a lot of fun despite the fact that we both got horribly sick afterward. The lovely Lindsey Matsuo agreed to pose for me as the foreboding Yuki-onna and in the nude no less! The setting is the outside bath at the local onsen in Kannari (the best thing about my town). We had to smuggle the camera in (photography is not allowed for obvious reasons) and sneak pictures while some nearly toothless obaasan explained to us that New Zealand was really close to New York City. The snow was created later in Photoshop although it did start snowing shortly after this shot was taken.


Chochin’obake

Another fun yokai and in the same class as the Karakasa above. The setting was a yaki cart that set up shop in front of the MaxValu almost everyday. All yaki carts have lanterns so it seemed like the perfect place for a chochin’obake to hang out. The eye was created in Maya and with texturing and compositing done in Photoshop.

T n' T

While searching online for pictures of yokai in regard to a recent post, I kept coming across images like this:


The film was completely unfamiliar to me, so I followed the links and found that I was, in fact, aware of the film, Pom Poko, but I had never realized what it was actually about:


Raccoons!

Well, actually they’re tanukis. The movie just incorrectly (and rather annoyingly) refers to them in both the subtitles and dub as raccoons. Now, I understand why they’ve done this: American families, more likely than not, have no idea what a tanuki is. I do, but that’s only because I had to swerve several times while driving in Miyagi-ken to avoid hitting them.


They aren’t raccoons. They’re a separate species called raccoon-dogs and are more closely related to the canine half of their namesake.

Why am I so up in arms about the fact that the American version of Pom Poko doesn’t take the time out to explain that they’re tanukis? Because the entire movie revolves around the simple fact that tanukis are considered magical creatures in Japan (much like foxes and (older) cats). Tanukis, not raccoons. All over Japan you can find statues of these creatures with their one, rather large, distinguishing feature:


Their huge testicles. This is actually where the tanukis store most of their power. Their testicles can even grow to enormous sizes, big enough for them to play like drums or sit on. And, they are said to be extremely good luck. See, there’s a reason why a Google search for ‘yokai’ kept turning up this movie: Tanukis are considered yokai of a sort.


So, when I first saw the cover for Pom Poko, I actually assumed they were raccoons specifically because A.) they were advertised as such and B.) none of the creatures featured on the cover had visible testicles.


But within the first few minutes of the movie, BAM! There they were and believe me: tanuki testicles played a HUGE (literally at times) part in the story.


All I could think of was 'how?' How did this movie get distributed in America? And by Disney, no less? They play with their balls, they sing about their balls, they fight with their balls. They even form ships out of their balls!

For my first viewing, I watched it with the original Japanese audio. The words ‘balls’ and ‘testicles’ abounded in the English subtitles. I'm certain there's a drinking game somewhere that involves downing a shot every time either pops up. Makes me mighty curious what the Disney dubbing did about all that…

Sugoi! Mubi desu!

As well as writing about my two years living abroad, my day-to-day life since being back, my work and anything else that pops into my mind, I’ve decided to throw one more topic in to the mix: films. Specifically, films I’ve seen threw the years that more likely than not, you, dear reader, have not. To begin…

Yokai Daisenso

Or in English: The Great Yokai War. This film, directed by Takashi Miike, is technically a children’s movie which, to anyone out there that knows Miike, might seem surprising. I’m sure I’ll write about a few of his other films in the future.

The Great Yokai War is a remake of an older Japanese film made in 1968 called Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare*. In both films, good yokai (Japanese spirits) band together to overcome the big, bad yokai. It’s that simple. Why do I love them both? Cause I love yokai. They’re bizarre and I promise to elaborate further in future blogs.

But, there are several reasons to love Miike’s remake apart from “Yokai are cool”. For starters, just take in to account that this IS a children’s’ film. Keep this in mind as you scroll through the following images:

Bloody mutant cow fetuses?

Melting monsters in vats of red goo?

Small children being murdered by giant Optimus Primes from Hell on their way to the bathroom?

Kill Bill/Battle Royale's Chiaki Kuriyama’s numerous panty shots?

And my personal favorite:

The message to Japanese children everywhere that if you want the ability to see all these really awesome yokai all you have to do is drink A LOT of Kirin ‘biru’.

Other great things this flick’s got? Well, loads of fun special effects which, although nothing to compare to most of the CGI-extravaganzas out right now, celebrate the typically not-so-great-looking special effects we expect from any over-the-top Japanese monster movie. And for the hippies out there, some feel-good, peace-and-love messages: “Those who discard their past have no future” and “Wars don’t bring any good. They only make you a fool.” Right on, dude…

Oh, yeah… and yokais are just freaking cool.

*Sadly, I can’t remember for the life of me what the title is in Japanese and, even sadder still, the internet has failed me as well.