* All opinions described here is just a personal impression and review of the story.
Today's topic is "Yōkai".
History of Yōkai
Yōkai (妖怪) are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word Yōkai is made up of the kanji for "bewitching; attractive; calamity" and "spectre; apparition; mystery; suspicious." They can also be called ayakashi or mononoke. Yōkai range diversely from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them.
While the old Japanese people found the existence of Kami in all things, the supernatural phenomenon that was not celebrated as Kami is "Yōkai".
However, as the times progress, the range of events that can be reasonably explained rather than supernatural phenomena will increase significantly.
By actively modeling Yōkai as pictures, the appearance is fixed and characterized, the fear is alleviated, and gradually Yōkai become entertainment.
The tendency toward entertainment gradually began to be seen from the Middle Ages, and became decisive after the Edo period (1603-1868).
In ancient times, Yōkai, which were only told in sentences, were visualized one after another in pictures and stories in the Middle Ages (12C-16C). In addition, Otogi-zoshi has old stories such as Urashima-Taro and Issun-boshi, which are familiar even in modern times.
In the latter half of Edo period, Yōkai were used in the designs of publications such as karuta and sugoroku. With the development of publishing culture, more Yōkai paintings have been seen, and Yōkai, which were originally awe, have come to be familiar characters to people.
Yōkai have been handed down in various forms from ancient times to the present day, but there is little information that anyone can clearly see.
The existence of Yōkai can be confirmed in narratives and pictures, but the folklore of Yōkai that was generally experienced at that time is only slightly known from essays and diaries.
The divergence between the content of the tradition and the current situation has spurred the transformation of folklore Yōkai from "things that were familiar to life" to "things of the past."
It is also a problem related to the inheritance of culture in general.
On the other hand, as with the entertainment works of the Edo period, creative Yōkai continue to be born today. Since the 1960s, new Yōkai have appeared actively in manga, anime, and movies.
In the 1970s, many books introducing Yōkai in the form of encyclopedias, pictorial books, etc. began to be published for children as part of the mysterious children's books, and the same kind of books continue to be published even in the 21st century.
The Yōkai in these books are a mixture of the Yōkai that have been seen in folklore, ghost stories, and essays,
and the Yōkai that are thought to be
modern creations.
A Fox and a Smartphone (Vol. 25, Final episode)
Ten years after becoming a human being, Tomoe realizes that he is "a member of human society" (Vol. 25, Final episode). It's a feeling that couldn't be obtained just by masquerading as a human figure.
500 years ago, there wasn't much distinction between the world of humans and Yokai, but nowadays it is truly symbolic that the world is clearly distinguished.
Most of the supernatural phenomena that people in the past were afraid of can now be reasonably explained. Yokai can only exist in stories and folklore. That is, Yokai and humans live in different dimensions.
From a bird's-eye view, "the way human beings change with age" as mentioned by Nanami (Vol. 24, #142) overlaps with "the way human society itself changes with the changing times." "The never-changing yokai" exists only in the old folklore. As long as the hands of the clock cannot be rewound, the only way to live with humans is to get out of the world of old tales and jump into the real world.
From this perspective, the story of Tomoe choosing to leave Mikage Shrine and become a human symbolizes an attempt by a Yokai to leave the world of "old tales" and jump into "modern human society."
In the main story, there was almost no description of Tomoe using electronic devices including mobile phones and home appliances. The depiction of a fox yokai descending from a mountain becoming a human being at the end and operating a smartphone (Volume 25, final episode) overlaps with the historical process in which old-fashioned yokai are becoming a relic of the past. It makes me feel a little nostalgic.
