Who is Youkai?
Yōkai (妖怪, "strange apparition") are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is composed of two kanji characters that both mean "suspicious, doubtful", and while it may be regarded as a loanword from the Chinese term yaoguai, the word yōkai has taken on multiple different meanings particular to a Japanese context. Yōkai are also referred to as ayakashi (あやかし), mononoke (物の怪) or mamono (魔物). Despite often being translated as such, yōkai are not demons in the Western sense of the word, and they can be viewed as kami. However, the two loose classes of spirits are generally thought of as highly different, although some academics and Shinto practitioners acknowledge similarities within the seeming dichotomy between the natures of them and most kami, which are generally thought to be relatively beneficent in comparison, and class the two as ultimately the same type of spirits of nature or a mythological realm. Their behavi...
