Episode 32 of the podcast takes us to the north of Japan, into the snow country of Akita Prefecture and onto Oga Peninsula. Jutting out from the Japanese main island and into the Sea of Japan, Oga Peninsula is wild and beautiful, a place of rustic villages and lurking wonders; and it is here, in Oga that we encounter the fearsome ‘Namahage’ – mythical ogre-like creatures that emerge from the forested mountains every New Year, to raid village homes and terrorise the children inside. The Namahage are, in a very real sense, coming for the children…

Top image: “Namahage Comes Up Now” is property of 掬茶.. CC BY-SA 4.0 License is in effect .

Namahage: They’re Coming For The Children with Dr Michael Dylan Foster / University of California Davis

In this episode I speak with Dr Michael Dylan Foster, Professor or Japanese at University California Davis. Dr Foster has 30 years researching folklore, literature and popular culture in Japan including long-term ethnographic study of rituals, festivals and tourism in Japan including the Namahage of Oga Peninsula. Dr Foster is an authority on ‘Yokai’ – a generalist Japanese term for all-manner of supernatural beings, monsters, ghosts, demons, ogres and more – having published multiple books on the topic and produced TV series with Japan’s national broadcaster NHK.

Whether Namahage are indeed Yokai or something more, is an open question. It’s a fascinating topic and one that opens up a wider discussion of Yokai culture in Japan including just why there are so many and why it continues to play an important role in the daily lives of many people in one of the world’s most developed economies and societies.

We discuss all of this and more including the Namahage Seto Festival held each February and Namahage-kan Museum, in Oga, which is open all year round. Dr Foster’s books are available on Amazon – and other book suppliers – while his TV series on Yokai is available on NHK World Japan. I hope you enjoy!

*All images - other than top image - are the property of Dr Michael Dylan Foster and cannot be used without his permission.