What are the classic images of ghosts and monsters in Japanese mythology?

Yuki-no-Mikoto: It is said that in the early days of the Japanese civilization, because the people were not yet enlightened, the people of the older generation especially believe in the legends of some gods and demons, and even believe that the plagues of nature are controlled by the gods and demons, which is why there is a strange story of the snow woman in the snow. Whenever a person gets lost in the harsh environment of the snow, he will surely come across the Snow Maiden who feeds on the popularity of the people. Moreover, the unpredictable Snow Maiden will deliberately play on the bad nature of men who are fickle and unfaithful, and she will sometimes leave a frightened human male behind and threaten him that he has to keep the "promise" and obey the law of the Demon World, and must not tell other people about her existence and her retreat, otherwise the betrayed Snow Maiden will surely be betrayed. Otherwise, the betrayed Yuki-nee will go and take the man's life to teach him the law of the demon world. However, the man who wants to live will panic and beg for Yuki-nee's trust, promising to keep his promise not to tell anyone about Yuki-nee's behavior. However, Yuki-nee, who likes to test the man's qualities, will then disguise herself as an ordinary, virtuous human woman and deliberately approach the man she made a promise to, to win his favor, and then marry him and have a child with him, to follow him for life. Lifelong follow beside, monitoring whether the man can keep the promise, and she is safe and sound together for a lifetime to old age, but that happy dock to forget the thrilling encounters always haunted the man's doubt and fear of the heart, and finally until one day, the man was determined to meet with the snow woman to tell the truth to the closest to him around the wife, hoping that she can share his nightmares, but the man never thought that the person next to the pillow is his midnight dream! dream back in the most fearful dream eat, the original he long days is with the enemy *** pillow, destroyed the "promise", the snow woman had to contain Sheng prison P *** child birth of the man, and sadly with the child back to the ice and snow. This ancient legend of the Snow Maiden was first recorded in the Japanese monster novel, the classical lore "Koizumi Yakumo's Strange Tales", which fully describes the cold and unfeeling nature of the monster, and uses this story of betrayal to reflect the marriage between a man and a woman who are both close and distant, as well as the woman's delicate and sensitive style of love and hate, although this ancient legend is both sad and cold, but it is full of strange anecdotes of the KB alert, the ancient morality "about the promise", the man who gave birth to the child, and sadly brought back the child to the ice and snow. It is an old moral principle that "promises must be kept", but in today's world, how many people maintain a reverent respect for traditions and even honor them? There is also a legend that the Snow Maiden will ask a traveler to help her look after the child in her arms in the snowy wilderness, and if she agrees 。。。。 Kappa: Japanese folklorist Yanagida Kunio also wrote a "Kappa Koma" (the legend of the Kappa pulling a horse into a river) in "Yamashima Folklore Collection," saying that it is shaped like a green and black monkey, with arms and legs like ducks' paws, and a saucer in a depression at the top of the head, which is like holding a saucer, whether it is in the water or on the land, and as long as the water inside the saucer doesn't dry up, it is very powerful and can fight with a man or a horse, which is why it is said that there is a saying in Japan describing it. This is why there is a saying in Japan that describes a catastrophe as "Kappa's destruction". Kappa look like human beings, but they have webbed hands and feet and are very good at swimming. In addition, the hippo has a turtle-like shell on its back and a slippery transparent mucus on its skin surface, just like an amphibian. The top of the head of the Kappa is in the shape of a disk, and it is said that if the skin on this part of the head dries up, the Kappa will die, so the Kappa tends to hang out at the water's edge. Although there are rumors of Kappa in various parts of Japan, the legend of Kappa in Lake Biwa is the earliest and most authentic, and there is even a mummy of a Kappa in the nearby Azuchi-ji Temple. It is said that Lake Biwa is inhabited by different kinds of river children, some of which are of bad behavior and cause many innocent people to drown every year. These badly behaved river children will hide in the water and take the opportunity to pull on a person's feet, and then eat part of their internal organs after pulling the person into the water. Therefore, one must be careful at the water's edge in the mountains, and in case one encounters a Kappa, one only needs to dry up the water in the water dish on its head. Aoyagi: Specifically, it's not a demon, but rather an act of storytelling more akin to something like The Decameron: Japanese weird stories also tend to take place on summer nights. Many of the stories in Kabuki, the traditional Japanese theater, are derived from strange tales, and in the Edo period (1603-1867 CE) there was a game called "Hyakki no Yume," in which a few friends would get together in the middle of the night, light up a number of candles, and take turns telling ghost stories in order to get a feel for the atmosphere of the KB. It is said that when the hundredth candle is extinguished, the real ghost will appear ...... So often the storytellers will have a warning in their mind that when it is their turn to tell a story, they must not be the last one, because they don't know what will happen when they finish the hundredth story. So every time they reach the ninety-ninth story, they stop immediately, and no one dares to go on, which is a ritual to collectively summon the ghosts. The origin of "Hyakki" and how it is played is described in detail in the book "Gamemaiden", written by a writer of the Edo period, Asai Shiki, and is summarized as follows: Before the game of "Hyakki" is played, all the participants are dressed in green clothes and gather in a dark room. In the room next to the dark room, blue paper lanterns are prepared and filled with enough oil, and a hundred wicks are lit and placed side by side. A small wooden table with a mirror is placed next to the lamps. After each person has taken a turn to tell a strange story, he or she must leave his or her seat and walk in the dark to the next room where the lamps are lit, and blow out one of the wicks. Then, he had to look at his own face in the mirror before returning to the dark room and being replaced by the next person. During the process of blowing out the wicks, the same strange stories continue to be told, until after the ninety-ninth strange story is finished, the last wick is left, so it is left to continue to be lit, and then everyone continues to sit around and wait for the dawn until the sun comes out, and then each person is dismissed to go home. Many people do not understand why strange stories are always told to the ninety-nine on the end, because at that time the people were very superstitious that if the hundredth strange story, what will happen to the strange things, so no one dares to touch this taboo. With the change of time, candles were used instead of lanterns, and the new rule of the game was that the last candle had to be blown out, so the Hundred Thing Game became KB's Weird Tales, and I heard that when the last candle was blown out, some strange things did happen. Toriyama Ishiyan's painting "Aojiru" is included in "Painting a Hundred Ghosts at Night", which depicts the scene of Hyakumonogatari at that time. When the Aojiru was about to be blown out, many funny and interesting stories about monsters and demons were being told in a group of people's mouths, and some people wrote them down, which is the origin of the monsters and demons Hyakumonogatari. Oh, if you want to play this game in the future, don't tell the hundredth ghost story, it will become true! Nitta Bluff: Nitta Bluff is a long-standing legend in Fukui Prefecture. According to local residents, when they pass by a field late at night, they often suddenly notice a dark figure standing in the center of the field. This dark figure would keep shouting "Give me back my field! and throwing mud at people. This is Nudabo. Mudra is a demon with only one eye, and is not the guardian of the fields, but is formed by the ghosts of peasants who died of starvation when their fields were taken from them. It is said that the mud that is thrown at them is quite foul smelling, and once they are hit, the stench will last for about 3 days. Cow Ghosts: (also known as earth spiders) As their name suggests, they are a combination of a cow and a ghost, and sleep at the bottom of the sea during the day, but come ashore at night to raid people's homes, and also live in the mountains. In Kannonji Temple in Tadomaru, Uwa-gun, Fukuoka Prefecture, there is a rumor that there is a hand bone of an oni (cow ghost). According to the late Heian Period, the then presiding priest, Kanemitsu Shonin, "This was obtained by extinguishing a cow ghost that was disturbing the village." The most famous legend of defeating a cow ghost is at Nemuka-ji Temple in Takamatsu City, Kochi Prefecture. According to the legend, the cow ghost not only had horns on its head, but also had a face like a monkey, a body like a tiger, arms and legs like a cow, and bat-like wings under its armpits. At Nenka-ji Temple, the horns of the bull's head are still preserved and are displayed every year on June 28 of the lunar calendar, and a large statue of the bull's head, which resembles a dragon in Western mythology, has been erected on the grounds in commemoration of the legend. Legend has it that Minamoto Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, saw this monster when he was sick, and when it tried to approach the shogun in the guise of a mage, Minamoto Yoritomo, true to his reputation as a man who was blessed by the gods, pulled out his sword and swung it horizontally in a daze, wounding the monster, and then followed the bloodstains to find the cave of an earth spider, which was already dead! The sword that killed the ghost was henceforth called Kneecut or Onimaru Tsunade. Sakuton Toko: The story of Sakuton Toko is told in novels such as "Ojakuso" that he was a young monk from Echigo, but because of his good looks, he was envied, and because of his many evil thoughts, he was transformed into an oni. In addition, there is also the story of "the son of Ibusan Myojin (actually Yama) and Himekun of the nearby Hara clan. According to the former legend, Sakuton Boy was later expelled from the temple by a high priest who recognized his evil thoughts, thus ending his childhood. There is also a story that Sakutani Toshiko, also known as Sakuten Toshiko, was the king of the hundred devils who was killed by the Shogun Minamoto Yorimitsu, and that Yorimitsu's sword was named Yasuzuna Toshikiri, which, together with the famous sword Daidenta, is also known as the "Five Swords of the World" because of its strange origin. In the Heian period of 990, he was a famous demon that shook Kyoto. Legend has it that Sakutani, who lived on Mt. Oe in the country of Tamba, organized a group of evil spirits who built a palace made of cast iron, sneaked into the homes of the rich at night to steal their treasures, and took women and children as food for their mouths. Such things shocked even Emperor Ichijo, however, something even more terrible happened when Ikeda Nakanayan's daughter disappeared. The result of a divination by a yin and yang master is precisely that she has been captured by the ghosts of Oe-san.