The Dark Side of Japan

The Many Hells of Japan is a collection of folktales, ritual black magic, protection spells, monsters and other dark interpretations of life and death from Japanese folklore. Most of the information comes from ancient documents, translated into English for the first time. Antony Cummins has also searched the now forgotten Victorian volumes on Japanese mythology and explains recent academic research on Japan for the non-expert. Pulling all these strands together Antony has reformed the complex information with these brand new translations into a modern rendering, with stories and details that let a modern reader enter into the world of the forgotten legends of old Japan and the superstitions that colour them, some of which still exist today.

To enliven the text and make it more comprehensible, The Many Hells of Japan is illustrated with over 100 images, some drawn from ancient scrolls, some photographs of contemporary Japan, some specially commissioned to explain some of the hellish concepts within. And remarkable hellish they are too. Consider the kappa: goblin like creatures that have the body of a child, the face of a tiger adorned with a beak and the shell of a turtle. They drag people into rivers and ponds and drown them. If a woman gives birth to a kappa baby after being raped, the baby is hacked to death.