yōkai

plural yōkais

1. alternativeAlternative form of yokai.

   Japanese Twitter is alive with images of a duck-billed mermaid yōkai from Edo-era folklore with the supposed power to see off the coronavirus

   2020 April 10, Russell Thomas, “Meet Amabie: the pandemic-defeating monster bringing hope to Japan”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2020

   3 more examples

   Even today, visitors to Japan can see just how interwoven the nation’s culture is with its reverence toward the supernatural or unexplainable. This ranges from whimsically animated spirit worlds on film to the eccentric monsters and ghosts that feature prominently in contemporary artwork, to the yōkai woven into the tales of post-modernist writers.

   2019 August 2, AMC, “Dreaded and Revered: The Ghosts of Japan”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2021

   Ryōtora passed under a torii arch, leaning semi-drunkenly to one side and propping itself up on a nearby tree. It looked like the work of time and weather, not yōkai malice.

   2021, Marie Brennan [pseudonym; Bryn Neuenschwander], chapter 5, in The Night Parade of 100 Demons (Legend of the Five Rings), Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: Aconyte Books, →ISBN, page 60

   Nobody knows more about these yōkais than you. You have the police experience, and you took care of a giant one without any human casualties.

   2022, Jack McGuigan, chapter 1, in Dog Walker III: Wedding Siege, [Chicago, Ill.]: Gorilla House, →ISBN, page 14