Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki's Supernatural Parade

Manga titan Shigeru Mizuki brings Japan’s most entertaining myths to the modern age


As travelers approach a lush, cedar forest—the soft floor and woodland scent palpable from Shigeru Mizuki’s fecund drawing—something falls from the trees with a thud: a human head, twelve times average size. A dozen more heads follow, peering at the travelers with maniacal laughter, before retreating back into the woods. A hallucination? No, this is Tohoku No Tsurubeotoshi.

An earthworm, larger than a human, f...