19 Strange & Terrifying Monsters From Japanese Myth

Urban legends expert Sydney Bermudez breaks down the most popular supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore

Co-authored by Amber Crain

Last Updated: March 4, 2026 Fact Checked

Japanese folklore is full of strange and fascinating supernatural entities (also known as yokai). Are you ready to meet Japan’s most famous mythical monsters? An urban legends expert partnered with wikiHow to break down the most well-known Japanese mythical creatures below. So, keep reading to learn about shapeshifting foxes, vampiric sea serpents, trees that grow human heads, and much more!

Famous Creatures from Japanese Mythology

An illustration featuring several famous creatures and monsters from Japanese folklore.

Urban legends expert Sydney Bermudez says the most well-known Japanese mythical creatures are the Kitsune, Oni, Tengu, and Kuchisake-onna. Other popular examples include the Kappa, Yuki-onna, and Nure-onna. Here’s a quick overview of those creatures:

Oni (鬼): Huge ogre-like creatures with horns, tusks, and a penchant for torture.
Tengu (天狗): Arrogant and vindictive winged goblins with long red noses.
Kitsune (狐, きつね): Supernatural foxes and tricksters, known to shapeshift.
Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女): A masked, slit-mouthed woman carrying scissors.
Kappa (河童): Aquatic reptilian humanoids that feed on entrails (and cucumbers).
Yuki-onna (雪女): A malevolent snow spirit that freezes victims with its icy breath.
Nure-onna (濡女): Vampiric sea serpents with keen powers of deception.

1

Oni – The Classic Demon

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Oni (鬼) are vicious demons or ogre-like creatures with horns. Oni are the most famous and iconic monsters in Japanese folklore. They represent punishment and chaos, especially in Buddhist-influenced tales of hell, though some stories portray them as protective figures, says Bermudez.^{[1]
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Sydney Bermudez
Urban Legends Expert

Expert Interview} There are countless different oni in folklore, and no two legends describe them exactly the same. They’re believed to be wicked humans who’ve died and gone to hell, where they transform into oni and torture other souls.^{[2]
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- Appearance: They are horned, ogre-like demons, often depicted with red or blue skin and iron clubs, notes Bermudez.^{[3]
  X
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  Sydney Bermudez
  Urban Legends Expert
  
  Expert Interview} They are massive in size, often carry iron clubs, and are typically naked aside from a loincloth.
- Behavior: Oni are extremely wicked, destructive, and hateful, seeking only to inflict terror every chance they get. They live in the underworld, but travel topside to abduct and torture humans.
- Abilities: Supernatural strength, shapeshifting, illusions, sorcery.
Meet the wikiHow Expert

Sydney Bermudez is a horror and urban legends expert who explores paranormal cases, internet mysteries, and psychological horror. She shares content on TikTok and Instagram to over 400k followers.

2

Kappa – The River Monster

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Kappa (河童) are reptilian humanoids that live in rivers. Kappa are intelligent and solitary. In some legends they’re dangerous, but in others they’re friendly toward humans. They’re known for never breaking their promises and are experts in medicine; according to legend, kappa taught humans how to set broken bones. They love to eat entrails and cucumbers (in some tales, they also have a fondness for eating human anuses!)^{[4]
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- Appearance: Kappa are child-sized, with scaly skin, webbed hands and feet, a turtle-like beak and shell, three anuses, and a dish-like depression on their skulls that must be filled with fluid at all times. If it dries up, the kappa loses mobility and dies.
- Behavior: Stubborn, proud, and honorable. Some are mischievous and love to fart loudly in public (thanks to their three anuses). Others are said to be crass and sexually violent. In many legends, they’re associated with kidnapping and drowning.
- Abilities: Superhuman strength, water manipulation, regenerative powers, agility.

3

Tengu – The Long-Nosed Goblin

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Tengu (天狗) are complex demonic entities with long red noses. Originally depicted as bird-like demons, tengu are supernatural mountain beings that later evolved into humanoid figures with long noses, according to Bermudez. “They’re often skilled warriors or tricksters who test human arrogance.”^{[5]
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Sydney Bermudez
Urban Legends Expert

Expert Interview} In many tales, they're guardians of mountains and forests, associated with pride and vindictiveness. The common Japanese idiom “to act like a tengu” means to act arrogant or conceited.^{[6]
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- Appearance: They have red, angry faces, wings, and extremely long noses. They wear priests' robes and are often depicted holding a ha-uchiwa (feather fan). Their appearance can be avian, goblin-like, or even priestly (often a hybrid of all three).
- Behavior: Mischievous and conceited troublemakers with formidable martial art skills. They often kidnap priests or samurai they deem arrogant so they can punish them.
- Abilities: Supernatural strength, flight, shapeshifting, dream manipulation, combat skills.

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Kitsune – The Magical Fox Spirit

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Kitsune (狐, きつね) are supernatural foxes and tricksters. These are powerful fox spirits known for shape-shifting and intelligence, says Bermudez. “As they age, they gain additional tails (up to nine), symbolizing wisdom and strength. Some serve as messengers of the deity Inari, while others are mischievous tricksters who create illusions or possess humans.”^{[7]
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Sydney Bermudez
Urban Legends Expert

Expert Interview} In folklore, there’s no difference between normal and supernatural foxes–“normal” foxes are just immature kitsune that haven't developed paranormal powers yet.^{[8]
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- Appearance: Kitsune look like regular wild foxes with small bodies and cute faces.
- Behavior: Their behavior can range from benevolent to malicious, and they love playing tricks. They’re known for shapeshifting into beautiful women to deceive humans.
- Abilities: Shapeshifting and intelligence^{[9]
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  Sydney Bermudez
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  Expert Interview}, spiritual possession, breathing spectral fire, dream control.

5

Tanuki – The Trickster Raccoon Dog

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Tanuki (たぬき) are playful raccoon dogs associated with good luck. Like kitsune, they’re supernatural tricksters that look like regular animals, although they’re more jovial and slightly less dignified creatures. They love to party and get drunk, often shapeshifting into human form just to buy alcohol. They’re known for playing lighthearted pranks on unsuspecting humans and are associated with good times and prosperity.^{[10]
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- Appearance: They look like regular Japanese raccoon dogs, with big eyes, smiling faces, round bellies, a large scrotum, and a big tail. In legends, they’re often depicted wearing a straw hat and holding a flask of sake.
- Behavior: Mischievous, jolly, and good-natured pranksters.
- Abilities: Shapeshifting, illusions, partying (if you consider that a superpower!)

6

Ninmenju – The Human-Faced Tree

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Ninmenju (人面樹) are supernatural trees that grow human heads. The human heads cannot speak, but they do smile and laugh (which sounds incredibly unsettling). In the legends, if you go up to a ninmenju and laugh at it, all of the heads will laugh back at you. If you make them laugh too hard, the heads will wither and fall off the tree. In some stories, the heads are edible.^{[11]
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- Appearance: They look like normal trees, except they grow human heads instead of fruit.
- Behavior: They can smile and laugh, but they can’t speak. They’re harmless to humans.
- Abilities: Other than growing human heads, they don’t have any supernatural abilities.

7

Futakuchi-onna – The Two-Mouthed Woman

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Futakuchi-onna (二口女) is a woman with a hidden second mouth. In the legends, the creature is said to have a mouth on the back of its head, buried deep under its hair. They’re associated with yama-uba, which are women who are cursed or have a supernatural disease that transforms them into a yokai (monster). In the tales, she appears as a normal woman with a large appetite; her true nature is usually revealed later.^{[12]
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- Appearance: It looks like a normal woman with a hidden or “cursed” second mouth on the back of her head under her long hair. She can use her hair like tentacles to grab food and feed the cursed mouth.
- Behavior: Gluttony and insatiable hunger. The second mouth can talk, sometimes demanding food and shouting obscenities. If it gets too hungry, it can get violent.
- Abilities: Massive consumption, transformation, deception.

8

Jorōgumo – The Spider Woman

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Jorōgumo (絡新婦) is a half-woman/half spider creature. When the Jorōgumo spider (a species of golden orb-weaver) gets to be 400 years old, it gains magical powers allowing it to shapeshift into a beautiful woman so it can trap and feed on young, handsome men. Typically, it lures them to a quiet, abandoned shack, mesmerizes them by playing the lute, and then binds them in its web.^{[13]
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- Appearance: Its true form is a large golden orb-weaver spider. It can shapeshift to appear as a stunningly beautiful young woman with long, dark hair.
- Behavior: This cunning predator lures young men into abandoned homes and then traps, poisons, and consumes them.
- Abilities: Shapeshifting, toxic venom, supernatural strength, musical enchantment, controlling the will of smaller spiders.

9

Shinigami – The Death Spirit

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Shinigami (死神) are spirits that guide or lure people into death. In some tales, they’re depicted as helpers who guide dead souls to the afterlife, similar to the Grim Reaper in Western culture. More commonly, they’re evil spirits who try to lure or convince humans to commit suicide so they can consume they’re souls. They can also possess people and make them commit suicide.^{[14]
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- Appearance: Appearances vary, but they’re usually humanoid and corpse-like. Some have demonic features and sharp teeth. Others are said to be skeletal, winged entities.
- Behavior: They’re usually neutral or malevolent spirits attracted to scenes of death. In pop culture (like Death Note), they’re often described as lazy and bored.
- Abilities: Immortality, spiritual possession, soul extraction, invisibility, flight/teleportation.

10

Mokumokuren – The Legend of the Many-Eyed

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Mokumokuren (目目連) haunt holes in walls and stare at you. This is a tsukumogami, also known as a haunted inanimate object. These entities live in damaged shoji (Japanese paper sliding walls) that are riddled with holes. The entity is said to have hundreds of eyes, which it uses to watch you at all times. If you repair the hole, the entity usually goes away.^{[15]
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- Appearance: They live in darkness and don’t have an actual appearance (aside from the hundreds of eyes peering out from dark holes).
- Behavior: Aside from being creepy, they’re generally harmless to humans. In some tales, they feed on human energy.
- Abilities: Some can feed off of human energy. Otherwise, none, but their presence usually means more (and potentially dangerous) yokai are nearby.

11

Omukade – The Great Centipede

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The omukade (大百足) is a massive man-eating centipede. These creatures live in the mountains and feed on humans, large snakes, and dragons. In some legends, they have poisonous venom. Their only weakness is human saliva, which can kill them. They are associated with darkness and evil and represent the dangers of nature.^{[16]
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- Appearance: A large centipede. In some tales, they’re as large as mountains.
- Behavior: These aggressive beasts are said to poison, torment, and eat humans that visit the mountains where they live.
- Abilities: Poisonous venom, immense size, strength.

12

Yuki-onna – The Snow Woman

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Yuki-onna (雪女) is a malevolent snow spirit. She appears as a beautiful woman who hunts and preys on humans lost in heavy snowstorms. She lures travelers to her, then freezes her victims with her icy breath and sucks the life force out of their mouths. She is said to float above the snow, leaving no footprints.^{[17]
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- Appearance: A thin, beautiful woman with snow white skin, piercing eyes, and icy breath.
- Behavior: This floating spirit appears like smoke or fog, and disappears in the same eerie way. She lures people with her beauty and consumes their energy.
- Abilities: Icy breath that can freeze humans, seduction, energy consumption.

13

Rokurokubi – The Long-Necked Demon

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Rokurokubi (ろくろ首, 轆轤首) can stretch their necks to extreme lengths. By day, they appear as normal human beings, usually women. At night, while they’re asleep, they stretch their necks to freakish lengths to roam, commit crimes, and murder people. In some tales, the heads can detach and attack. The person is usually unaware of their rokurokubi condition; they believe the vague memories of their nighttime ventures are just dreams.^{[18]
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- Appearance: A normal woman by day. At night, while hunting, she’s just a head with a super elongated neck.
- Behavior: In some tales, they’re mischievous, attacking small animals and committing petty crimes. In others, they’re murderous and evil.
- Abilities: Nocturnal transformation, deception.

14

Gashadokuro – The Giant Skeleton

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Gashadokuro (がしゃどくろ) are skeletal giants. These evil spirits manifest as huge skeletons and wander the countryside at night, crushing or biting the heads off people it comes across. Its body is made of bones collected from human soldiers or victims of starvation, often buried in mass unmarked graves. Because of their cruel deaths, the gashadokuro are bloodthirsty and hate the living.^{[19]
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- Appearance: A giant skeleton that’s 15 times the size of a normal human and made of the bones of many different human beings.
- Behavior: These bitter, angry spirits roam around late at night killing people they come across. Their souls cannot rest.
- Abilities: Superhuman strength, stealth, massive size.

15

Nurarihyon – The Slippery Old Man

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Nurarihyon (滑瓢) appears as a mysterious old man that steals from people. This entity tends to appear in homes when a family is busy and distracted, stealing luxuries from them and deceiving everyone, while claiming he’s the master of the house. Even the confused homeowners start to believe he owns the place. He disappears when he’s ready, leaving the homeowners wondering about the strange old man that visited them.^{[20]
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- Appearance: He looks like a harmless old man wearing elegant clothing. His mannerisms are that of a gentleman.
- Behavior: When he’s not taking up residence in strangers’ homes, he rides around in a fancy palanquin carried by humans or other spirits and visits red light districts. He is revered and respected among all yokai, and they treat him like a general.
- Abilities: Deception, manipulation, stealth, leadership.

16

Nure-onna – The Wet Women

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Nure-onna (濡女) are vampiric sea serpents. These ocean-dwellers have the body of a snake and the head and torso of a woman. They approach their victims while holding what looks like a human baby bundled in a blanket and begs them to hold her child for a few minutes. If you agree, the baby becomes so heavy in your harms that you can’t move, and then the monster attacks and consumes you.^{[21]
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- Appearance: A serpent/woman hybrid with long, wet hair. In some tales, she’s beautiful; in others, she’s hideous. She’s holding a bundle that she claims is her baby.
- Behavior: She uses the baby trick, among other deceptions, to hunt her prey. She can be very convincing.
- Abilities: Deception, vampirism, superhuman strength.

17

Nekomata – The Fork-Tailed Cat

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The nekomata (猫また/猫又) is an evil cat that controls and kills humans. They begin as regular housecats and transform once a cat becomes old and intelligent. After they transform, the nekomata can talk and walk on two legs. They despise human beings, murdering them (sometimes with fireballs) and then controlling their corpses through necromancy.^{[22]
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- Appearance: They look like regular cats except their tail is split in two. After they transform, they can get as large as bears.
- Behavior: They are calculating, malevolent and violent. They hate humans and actively seek to murder and enslave them using necromancy.
- Abilities: Intelligence, necromancy, mind control, capable of summoning fireballs.

18

Yurei – The Vengeful Ghost

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Yurei (幽霊) are angry and restless spirits of deceased humans. They appear late at night to psychologically torture those who wronged them. In most legends, they can’t physically harm living beings (so they resort to mental torture). Many yurei died by suicide or didn’t get a proper funeral ceremony. They haunt specific locations or people that are tied to their deaths.^{[23]
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- Appearance: Usually women with long, black hair and wrists that hang limply at the joints. They wear long, white robes and sometimes manifest as floating flames or colored smoke.
- Behavior: They are angry, restless spirits that are seeking revenge.
- Abilities: Vengeful curses, floating/flying, teleportation, invisibility.

19

Kuchisake-onna – The Slit-Mouthed Woman

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Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女) is venegable spirit wearing a mask. According to Bermudez, she’s a masked woman who asks, “Am I beautiful?” and reveals a mouth slit ear-to-ear if answered incorrectly. “The story became widely known in the 1970s and remains culturally influential.”^{[24]
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Sydney Bermudez
Urban Legends Expert

Expert Interview} She often appears in horror media, killing victims who say “no” or cutting them from ear-to-ear if they answer “yes” (after revealing her mouth).
- Appearance: Usually depicted with long hair and carrying scissors.
- Behavior: She stalks pedestrians or children at night.
- Abilities: Superhuman speed, stalking, wielding large scissors to brutally murder or disfigure victims.