Japanese Lore
A deep dive into Japanese myth, religion, folklore, and the uncanny — Shinto and its kami, the yōkai bestiary, the kaidan ghost-story tradition, and the blurred line between legend and history — with every real, visitable place named and located, so the course doubles as a travel atlas.
Who it's for. Anyone drawn to Japanese culture and planning to travel there: it teaches the myth, the monsters, and the history, and points at the shrines, museums, and haunted places where you can stand in the middle of them.
1 course · 23 lessons
Path
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Japanese Lore
The full arc — Shinto and the kami, the yōkai canon, the ghost-story tradition and its real haunted places, and the texts, emperors, and people that turned myth into history and history into legend.
Shinto: Kami, Shrines, and Practice
- What Shinto Is (and Isn't)
- The Shrine: Architecture and Sacred Space
- Practice: How to Visit, Pray, and Read Your Fortune
- The Great Kami I: Izanagi's Children — Amaterasu, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi
- The Great Kami II: Inari, Hachiman, Tenjin, and the Storm Brothers
Yōkai and Folklore
- What Yōkai Are — and Who Wrote Them Down
- The Heavy Hitters: Oni and Tengu
- The Tricksters: Kitsune and Tanuki
- The Dangerous Landscape: Kappa, Yuki-onna, and the Mountain Crones
- Yūrei and Tsukumogami: Ghosts, Grudges, and the Souls of Tools
Kaidan: Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
- The Kaidan Tradition: A Hundred Candles
- Yotsuya Kaidan: Oiwa
- Banchō Sarayashiki: Okiku and the Nine Plates
- Eerie Places, Handled Honestly
History and Legend
- The Books That Made the Myths: Kojiki and Nihon Shoki
- Legendary Emperors and Heroes: Jimmu, Yamato Takeru, Jingū — and the Regalia
- When Buddhas Met Kami: Shinbutsu Shūgō and the Great Separation
- Real People Who Became Legends: Seimei, Michizane, Masakado, Yoshitsune
Lore on the Map