JAPANESE MONSTER BOOK TURNS THE WEIRDOMETER UP TO ‘11’.Sick of werewolves, tired of zombies, will you scream if you read ay more about vampires? Well Richard Freeman’s new book ‘The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia; An A to Z of Japanese Monsters’ is the perfect antidote. No one could accuse Japanese folklore or Japanese monsters of being run of the mill.
With early public literacy, access to the printing press and hundreds of years of Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist cultural cross pollinations, the stage is said for some truly insane legendary beasts that make the creations of H.P.Lovecraft look as wholesome as the Care Bears.
Collectively known as Yokai, the ghosts and monsters from the Land of the Rising Sun are so strange that to a western mind they are like having a mental enema. The book lists a cavalcade of the weirdest monsters in the world. Gant man eating sea cucumbers that grow from girl's knickers, pervert water goblins, grave robbing giant rabbits, dragons that impregnate women, flaming pigs that steal human genitals, monsters that eat your hair, monsters that lick the ceiling, monsters that lick poorly kept public toilets, cats that animate dead bodies, dogs with shape shifting testicles, blood sucking weasels and un-dead whales, it's all in here and much, much more!
Were did they come from? Why did people believe in them? Why are they so damn strange? Cold any of them have a distorted basis in reality? Could some of them still exist today?
‘The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia; An A to Z of Japanese Monsters’ is available from CFZ Books at www.cfz.org.uk
Richard Freeman is available for interview.
NOTES TO EDITORS
* The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is the world’s largest mystery animal research organisation. It was founded in 1992 by British author Jonathan Downes and is a non-profit making (not for profit) organisation registered with H.M. Stamp Office.
* Life-president of the CFZ is Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, best known for his groundbreaking youth work organising the ‘Operation Drake’ and ‘Operation Raleigh’ expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s.
* CFZ Director Jonathan Downes is the author and/or editor of over 20 books. His latest book is Island of Paradise, his first hand account of two expeditions to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in search of the grotesque vampiric chupacabra.
* The CFZ have carried out expeditions across the world including Russia, Ireland, Sumatra, Mongolia, Guyana, Gambia, Texas, Mexico, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Illinois, Loch Ness, and Loch Morar.
* CFZ Press are the world’s largest publishers of books on mystery animals. They also publish Animals & Men, the world’s only cryptozoology magazine, and The Amateur Naturalist, Britain’s only dedicated magazine on the subject.
* The CFZ produce their own full-length documentaries through their media division called CFZtv www.cfztv.org. One of their films Lair of the Red Worm which was released in early 2007 and documents their 2005 Mongolia expedition has now been seen by nearly 82,000 people.
* The CFZ is based in Jon Downes’ old family home in rural North Devon which he shares with his wife Corinna (53). It is also home to various members of the CFZ’s permanent directorate and a collection of exotic animals.
* Jonathan Downes presents a monthly web TV show called On the Track (available through YouTube) which covers cryptozoology and work of the CFZ.
* The CFZ are opening a Visitor Centre and Museum in Woolsery, North Devon.
* Following their successful partnership with Capcom http://www.capcom.com/ on the 2007 Guyana expedition, the CFZ are looking for more commercial sponsors.
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