Book Review: 水木しげるの妖怪事典

As promised yesterday, I'm back with more info about the cool new book I got!

I know I've mentioned it before, but I study in waves. When I'm in the mood to study, I burn through Kanji like nobody's business. When I'm not in the mood to study though, I pretty much just lay on my tatami for a month and a half... like nobody's business.

So one of the biggest challenges for me is finding things to help me study that don't feel like studying.

From what I understand, the reading portions of the 2kyuu JLPT can get pretty brutal, so I've gotten in the habit of picking up books in Japanese that look like the kind of stuff I'd be interested in anyway. I know a lot of people who use manga to practice like this. I recommend doing that too, although I personally find myself more likely to skip words I don't know if I can tell what's going on because of the pictures.

This book, though, is perfect for me. Only one picture per page with a nice block of accompanying text explanation, it catalogs the demons and ghosts of Japan without coming off too encyclopedia-esque. The writer, Mizuki Shigeru, is known for being the creator of the popular manga and anime ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (GeGeGe no Kitarou), but is also considered THE leading expert/master of the 妖怪 (youkai: spirits, ghosts, etc) world. Try buying a book about 妖怪 that's NOT written by him. Seriously, try it. Cause I did. It was hard.

Well-researched and incredibly detailed (down to the 川獺's likely responses to a variety of questions), the book is even more valuable for its application as a study tool. Instead of taking the form of a usual encyclopedia, with formulaic entries that would yield the same pattern of words and phrases ad infinitum, Mizuki writes most of the pages I've gotten to so far in a kind of autobiographical style, relating his earliest encounters with the stories of these creatures, how and where he came across them, and how and where he believed he was likely to actually encounter them. While I expected a kind of specialized encyclopedic jargon that would be good practice for reading... other encyclopedias, I got a book that creates a short, but interesting, narrative for each creature profile with broader vocabulary that I can actually use and apply.

I'll note some of the examples of sections that you can find in his book below:

• 猫の神通力：The magical powers of cats! Hear about how all kinds of nekos, believed to possess abilities and knowledge beyond humans, have used their powers in days past: causing a small-town shrine to hover above the ground to bring back it's parishioners and save it from bankruptcy. (起死回生?)


• かに坊主:The Buddhist monk crab: A traveling monk stays the night in the abandoned Crab Temple of Yamanashi-ken. He's bothered by a strange figure in a monk's visage during the night, but finding nothing suspicious about this, he tells the figure to leave him alone and resumes his sleep. In the morning, when he learns of the mysterious disappearance of the temple's former inhabitants all in one night, he suggests draining the pond behind the temple building. When they do so, they discover not only the skeletons of the missing monks, but a gigantic evil looking crab!

In addition to these anecdotes, there's tons about mermaids, giants, oni, mysterious apparitions, and more detail on the varieties and habits of かっぱ than you EVER thought possible.

This book is one in a series, so if you're interested in 妖怪 of China, or 妖怪 of the world, Mizuki's got your back.

Further recommendations for those of you who like 妖怪 too:

• About 水木しげる.
• ゲゲゲの鬼太郎.
• This movie: 妖怪大戦争by Miike Takashi, inspired by and featuring a cameo by 水木しげる.

表現 Break: 渡る世間に鬼はない

わたる　せけん　に　おに　は　ない
wataru seken ni oni wa nai

Today, a Japanese expression that would have Thomas Hobbes rolling in his grave. Whereas he assumed that life in the state of nature would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" due to the fundamental selfishness and evil of individual human beings, the Japanese came up with a more positive outlook.

Definition:
世間には鬼のように冷たい人ばかりでなく、心が温かくて親切な人もいること.
Translations:
Literal - There are no demons in this world
1. Not everyone is bad at heart.
2. People are basically good natured.
3. There is kindness to be found everywhere.

Of course, not all Japanese people think this way, as might be evidenced by the popular "ime-ji" of foreign countries as places of extreme danger. In fact, there is a long running Japanese TV drama that named itself after an alternate version of this phrase: 渡る世間には鬼ばかり.

And in case you ever get into a conversation about it, let's arm you with one of this phrase's opposites as well:

寺の隣にも鬼が住む
てらのとなりにもおにがすむ
tera no tonari ni mo oni ga sumu

Demons can live anywhere, even next to the temple.

Important note:
Don't be surprised if Japanese people are MORE familiar with the revised version that came from the drama... 渡る世間に鬼はない is an old expression, and young folks today are less inclined to assume the best of people.

Let's have some fun with today's example conversation、and revisit some old examples to see some alternate (better) uses.

例文：　
A-san: あの人が喋ると、ただ美辞麗句を並べているように聞こえない？なんか、きれいな言葉ばかりで、あまり意味がないよね。
When that guy talks, doesn't it seem like he's just blowing smoke in our faces? He says a lot of pretty things, but there's never any substance.
B-san:　そうよね。口がうまい、あいつ。彼は海千山千の代表じゃない？ああいうタイプには用心するけどね。
Yeah, right? Quite the bullshitter, that SOB. He's the epitome of a sly, old fox. If I were you, I'd be extra-cautious.
C-san:　でも、渡る世間には鬼はないから、もしかして彼の言っているのは純粋なのか？
But, there's good in everybody, you know? What if he's sincere in what he's saying?
D-san:　だが、衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ。それに、寺の隣にも鬼が住む。和尚の格好をつけている鬼でいる可能性もある。
Yeah, well wearing a robe doesn't make him a priest. And on top of that, demons lurk everywhere, even next to temples. What if he's a devil in priest's clothing?
Clay-san:　つまり「鬼と和尚は 表裏一体」とよく言われることだ。
After all, they say "Devils and priest are two sides of the same coin..."
Clay-sanの元彼女：　何それ！勝手に自分のことわざ作らないでよ！
What are you talking about? Stop making up your own expressions!