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1. Introduction To The Weird

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Pandemonium and Parade
This chapter is in the book Pandemonium and Parade
chapter 1Introduction to the Weird1mysterious bodiesThe bones were found in May 2000, in the small town of Yoshii inOkayama Prefecture. News of the discovery, according to one weeklymagazine, “set off tremors throughout Japan.” The skeleton was takento a university to determine whether it really belonged to atsuchinoko,a legendary reptilelike creature the existence of which had never beenscientificallyconfirmed.Afterthoroughlyexaminingthespecimen,apro-fessor of biology declared that the remains were not those of a tsuchi-noko but rather of a malformed grass snake. This disappointing newsdidnotdampenspiritsinYoshii.Infact,stimulatedbythenear-discovery,the town was experiencing a “tsuchinoko boom.” A giant statue of thefantastic beast was set up at a neighborhood nursery school, local man-ufacturers began producing tsuchinoko wine and bean cakes, and a re-ward was offered for anybody who could actually find one of the elu-sive creatures.1Meanwhile, at a major government-sponsored research institute inKyoto, an interdisciplinary group of scholars had begun a series of bi-monthly workshops to discuss Japan’s culture of mysterious creatures,spookytales,andstrangephenomena.Participantscamefromacademicfields such as literature, folklore, anthropology, history, geography, reli-gion,andart.Alongwithseveralcollectionsofarticles,oneresultofthesemeetings was the establishment of a computer database with more than
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

chapter 1Introduction to the Weird1mysterious bodiesThe bones were found in May 2000, in the small town of Yoshii inOkayama Prefecture. News of the discovery, according to one weeklymagazine, “set off tremors throughout Japan.” The skeleton was takento a university to determine whether it really belonged to atsuchinoko,a legendary reptilelike creature the existence of which had never beenscientificallyconfirmed.Afterthoroughlyexaminingthespecimen,apro-fessor of biology declared that the remains were not those of a tsuchi-noko but rather of a malformed grass snake. This disappointing newsdidnotdampenspiritsinYoshii.Infact,stimulatedbythenear-discovery,the town was experiencing a “tsuchinoko boom.” A giant statue of thefantastic beast was set up at a neighborhood nursery school, local man-ufacturers began producing tsuchinoko wine and bean cakes, and a re-ward was offered for anybody who could actually find one of the elu-sive creatures.1Meanwhile, at a major government-sponsored research institute inKyoto, an interdisciplinary group of scholars had begun a series of bi-monthly workshops to discuss Japan’s culture of mysterious creatures,spookytales,andstrangephenomena.Participantscamefromacademicfields such as literature, folklore, anthropology, history, geography, reli-gion,andart.Alongwithseveralcollectionsofarticles,oneresultofthesemeetings was the establishment of a computer database with more than
© 2019 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Illustrations xi
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. Note On Japanese Names And Terms xvii
  6. 1. Introduction To The Weird 1
  7. 2. Natural History Of The Weird: Encyclopedias, Spooky Stories, And The Bestiaries Of Toriyama Sekien 30
  8. 3. Science Of The Weird: Inoue Enryō, Kokkuri, And Human Electricity 77
  9. 4. Museum Of Theweird: Modernity, Minzokugaku, And The Discovery Of Yōkai 115
  10. 5. Media Of The Weird: Mizuki Shigeru And Kuchi-Sake-Onna 160
  11. 6. Yōkai Culture: Past, Present, Future 204
  12. Notes 217
  13. Bibliography 259
  14. Index 277
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520942677-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Illustrations xi
  4. Acknowledgments xiii
  5. Note On Japanese Names And Terms xvii
  6. 1. Introduction To The Weird 1
  7. 2. Natural History Of The Weird: Encyclopedias, Spooky Stories, And The Bestiaries Of Toriyama Sekien 30
  8. 3. Science Of The Weird: Inoue Enryō, Kokkuri, And Human Electricity 77
  9. 4. Museum Of Theweird: Modernity, Minzokugaku, And The Discovery Of Yōkai 115
  10. 5. Media Of The Weird: Mizuki Shigeru And Kuchi-Sake-Onna 160
  11. 6. Yōkai Culture: Past, Present, Future 204
  12. Notes 217
  13. Bibliography 259
  14. Index 277
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