Hyakki Yagyoo 

APPEARANCE: Ittan momen is a long, narrow sheet 

of cloth normally used to make clothes, but reanimated with

the spirit of a tsukumogami. They are native to Kagoshima, 

and can be seen flying through the sky at night, 

occasionally attacking people.

Yokai information from Yokai.com

.

Personal approach —

According to Ittan Momen’s ironic characteristic, I used a very simple form to manifest its normal attributes, as we can see the sheet of cloth very often in our life; Ittan Momen has a slim and soft body, but ironically it has creepy movement and would attack people even kill people easily, so I explored to a sound that is simultaneously creepy and seems harmless, also creates a scene that has hang with gravity described the flying ability of Ittan Momen.

APPEARANCE: Wa nyūdō is a giant, fearsome man’s head 

trapped within a flaming ox-cart wheel. His head is shaved like a monk’s in penance for his sins during life.

Yokai information from yokai.com

.

Personal approach —

Wanyudo is a more horror yokai than others featured in my compositions. Here’s a short story of wanyudo: when a woman peeked out her window and see wanyudo, wanyudo told her “instead of looking at me, have a look at your own child!” The woman looked down at her baby then saw her baby with his legs missing and her baby’s leg was in Wanyudo’s mouth.

Wanyudo move as a wheel with fire around his facial part, where I put down a theme of continuous movement with build up. There is a calmer part where I imitate huge bell sounds constantly while wanyudo patrolling, suddenly it goes to a pretty fast and stress atmosphere as wanyudo dragging victims and influct pain onto them.                         

APPEARANCE: Daruma doll is a hollow, round, Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism. Daruma dolls are seen as a symbol of perseverance and good luck, making them a popular gift of encouragement.

Information from Wiki.

.

Personal approach —

Daruma is often to be seen as a symbol of luck, but maybe because of its well-known traditional figure, so Daruma has appeared in some stories and games as a Yokai. 

Daruma was a figure came from Bodhidharma, according to Bodhidharma’s long period meditation of no moving, Daruma dolls have been made with special characteristic which Daruma will always returns to an upright position when tilted. This is really interesting to me and also from childhood we have been taught this, so I applied the resolution of harmony as a fall to horizon, as Daruma will never fall, I put many altered variations of II-V where those also shared common atmosphere with the traditional scales and sounds, and those never fall to any resolution point, besides that, the rhythmic groove is moving, I tried to show the feel like traditional festival, and the melody carried traditional sounds with strong pushes showed Daruma was being triggered.

APPEARANCE: The tsuchigumo, known as the 

purseweb spider in English, can be found all over 

the Japanese islands and throughout much 

of the world. Long-lived tsuchigumo can 

transform into yokai, and grow to a 

monstrous size, able to catch much larger 

prey (particularly humans).

Information from yokai.com

.

Personal approach —

Tsuchigumo is a giant spider, one of the most common picture of spider is related to its legs, fast and creepy movement caught me into the scene and brought out the passages. Besides that, Tsuchigumo also deceive people with illusion, it can turns to a human-like appearance and seduce people, where I use some semi-tone passage to carry. The whole tune was mostly free form as imitating the behavior of Tsuchigumo.

APPEARANCE: 

in the back of their skulls, buried beneath of long, 

thick hair, is a second mouth, with large, fat lips, 

and full of teeth. This second mouth is ravenous,

 and uses long strands of hair like tentacles 

to gorge itself on any food it can find.

Yokai information from yokai.com

.

Personal Approach —

This Yokai was was first introduced to me by our amazing drummer Yosuke, I was asking if you know any Yokai that has an appearance with two head? And he introduced me Futakuchi Onna.

The name “Futakuchi Onna” in English means a woman with two mouth, as in its characteristic, I put counter melody line that sounds in different traditional scales but share common sound atmosphere. The original stories were very interesting, the second mouth was mostly consuming food for the woman who eat very less, I share the horror of the appearance of the second mouth with a climax of the tune as the abnormal behavior of the Futakuchi Onna.

APPEARANCE: Ao bōzu are generally depicted as 

large, one-eyed, blue-skinned priests with a strong 

connection to magic. However, local accounts vary

greatly in details such as size, number of eyes, 

and habitat. In Okayama, they are described as 

two-eyed giants who take up residence in 

abandoned or uninhabited homes. In other stories, 

they appear in wheat fields, or on dark, lonely roads.

Yokai information from yokai.com

.

Personal Approach —

Aobouzu in English means “blue monk”, when Aobouzu was human, it used to be a monk, according to the story Aobouzu was not discipline to the practice so it turned to Yokai. This composition is the only one that actually has a major sound among the whole album, I used ritsu scale in half of the part which ritsu scale is a Buddhist chant. The first part became the chanting of Aobouzu, but the second part turned to a minor sound where show the dark part of Aobouzu.

APPEARANCE: They usually appear in a more human-like form; usually that of a man dressed in the robes of an ascetic monk, with a red face, an incredibly long and phallic nose (the longer the nose, the more powerful the tengu), and large, feathered wings sprouting from their backs. Only rarely do they appear in the more primitive avian form of the lesser tengu.

.

Personal approach —

Daitengu is one of the most representing yokai among Japanese traditional yokai characters, also became my album cover, Daitengu has so many different stories and each Daitengu has its feature and stories too. I personal feel more interested in the story with Emperor Sutoku, whom was described as one of the most well-known Daitengu and had caused many supernatural stories after his death. According to Emperor Sutoku’s love of ‘waka’, a style of Japanese traditional poetry, I twisted its feature into the composition, where waka refers to poetry in 5 and 7 metre patterns, I twisted it to the intervallic relation between bass and piano, and also the rhythm of melody cross the meter. Besides that, I want to make Daitengu with a stately sound, so the composition has a slow but tense atmosphere.