This talk will introduce the place of yōkai, Japanese monsters or fantastic creatures, in Japanese culture from the 1700s to the present. Along the way, we will meet a large number of individual yōkai, as well as some of the artists, scholars and writers who have explored what they have to say.

Bio:

Michael Dylan Foster is Professor of Japanese and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore (2015), Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai (2009), and numerous articles on Japanese folklore, literature, and media. He also co-edited The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World (2016) and UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage (2015). His current project explores tourism and heritage as they relate to local festivals in Japan.