Hiroko Yoda | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | University of Maryland |
Occupation(s) | Writer, Translator |
Hiroko Yoda is a Japanese entrepreneur, translator, writer, folklorist, and president of the localization company AltJapan Co., Ltd. [1] She was also a Tokyo city editor for the CNN travel website CNNGo. [2] She is a translator of video games [3] and the author of numerous books about Japanese history and culture. She is particularly known for her pioneering work contextualizing yokai culture for English-speaking audiences. [4] [5]
Born in Tokyo, she studied at the University of Maryland, then earned a Master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, D.C. [6] [7]
In 2005, she played the role of a yokai frog in the Takashi Miike film The Great Yokai War. [8] [9] She also had a cameo in the 2010 Tomoo Haraguchi film Death Kappa. [10]
In 2008, she was denied a Facebook account. She was told that "Facebook blocks the registration of a number of names that are frequently abused on the site. The name Yoda, also being the name of a popular Star Wars character, is on this list of blocked names." [11] The company only relented after her plight gained international mass media attention alongside other cases of banned names. [12] [13]
She is married to the writer and television personality Matt Alt. [14]
As scriptwriter
As translator
As localization producer
Books
Manga
Akitaro Daichi is a Japanese anime director, producer and photography director.
Toriyama Sekien, real name Sano Toyofusa, was a scholar, kyōka poet, and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. Born to a family of high-ranking servants to the Tokugawa shogunate, he was trained by Kanō school artists Kanō Gyokuen and Kanō Chikanobu, although he was never officially recognized as a Kanō school painter.
The term makibishi refers to the Japanese version of the caltrop. The tool (igadama) is a sharp spiked object that was used in feudal Japan to slow down pursuers and also was used in the defense of samurai fortifications.
GeGeGe no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎), originally known as Hakaba Kitarō, is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as yōkai, a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters belong to. This story was an early 20th-century Japanese folk tale performed on kamishibai. It has been adapted for the screen several times, as anime, live action, and video games. The word GeGeGe (ゲゲゲ) in the title is similar to Japanese sound symbolism for a cackling noise but refers to Mizuki's childhood nickname, a mispronounciation of his given name.
The nuppeppō is a yōkai that appears in Edo Period yōkai emaki such as the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and the Hyakkai Zukan. It is depicted with indistinguishable wrinkles on its face and body as a one head blob of meat.
Kuchisake-onna is a malevolent figure in Japanese urban legends and folklore. Described as the malicious spirit, or onryō, of a woman, she partially covers her face with a mask or other item and carries a pair of scissors, a knife, or some other sharp object. She is most often described as having long, straight, white hands, black hair, pale skin, and otherwise being considered beautiful . She has been described as a contemporary yōkai.
The nurikabe is a yōkai, or spirit, from Japanese folklore. Its name translates to "plaster wall", and it is said to manifest as an invisible wall that impedes or misdirects travelers walking at night. Sometimes referred to in English as "The Wall" or "Mr. Wall", this yōkai is described as quite tall, to prevent people from climbing over it, and wide enough to dampen any attempts to go around it. Japanese scholar and folklorist Kunio Yanagita recorded perhaps the most prominent early example of nurikabe and other yōkai in his books. Manga artist Shigeru Mizuki claims to have encountered a nurikabe in New Guinea, inspiring a nurikabe character in his manga Gegege no Kitarō.
The akaname is a Japanese yōkai depicted in Toriyama Sekien's 1776 book Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, with its precursor or equivalent akaneburi documented earlier in 1686.
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō is the first book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō e-hon tetralogy, published in 1776. A version of the tetralogy translated and annotated in English was published in 2016. Although the title translates to "The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons", it is based on an idiom, hyakki yagyō, that is akin to pandemonium in English and implies an uncountable horde. The book is followed by Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, Konjaku Hyakki Shūi, and Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro.
Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro is the fourth book in Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō tetralogy. A version of the tetralogy translated and annotated in English was published in 2016. The title is a pun; "hyakki", normally written with the characters "hundred" and "oni", is instead written with "hundred" and "vessels". This hints that the majority of the yōkai portrayed in its pages are of the variety known as tsukumogami, man-made objects taken sentient form. Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro is preceded in the series by Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, and Konjaku Hyakki Shūi.
Mokumokuren are yōkai in Japanese mythology.
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare is a 1968 Japanese fantasy horror film directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda. It is the second in a trilogy of films produced in the late 1960s, all of which focus around traditional Japanese monsters known as yōkai.
A Japanese urban legend is a story in Japanese folklore which is circulated as true. These urban legends are characterized by originating in or being popularized throughout the country of Japan. These urban legends commonly involve paranormal entities or creatures who encounter and attack humans, but the term can also encompass widespread, non-supernatural rumors in popular culture. Urban legends in the former category rarely include the folklore yōkai, instead of being primarily based on contemporary examples of yūrei. Modern Japanese urban legends tend to occur in schools or urban settings, and some can be considered cautionary tales.
Hanako-san, or Toire no Hanako-san, is a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako who haunts school toilets. Like many urban legends, the details of the origins of the legend vary depending on the account; different versions of the story include that Hanako-san is the ghost of a World War II–era girl who was killed while playing hide-and-seek during an air raid, that she was murdered by a parent or stranger, or that she committed suicide in a school toilet due to bullying.
Yamabiko is a mountain god, spirit, and yōkai in Japanese folklore; the term "yamabiko" also refers to the echo that occurs in mountains, after which the yōkai is named. Literally translated, the term means "mountain boy". It is the yōkai responsible for the natural phenomenon in mountains or canyons. Living deep in the mountains, direct encounters with the yamabiko are rare. Often they are heard, but never seen. The small and elusive yokai wasn't officially classified until the Edo period in Japan. Instead the bizarre noises coming from the mountain were attributed to a natural phenomenon, like birds, and not given any spiritual significance. It is usually depicted with gray fur, peach-colored belly, floppy ears, large grin, and arms outstretched as though it is caught mid-shrug.
AltJapan Co., Ltd. is a Tokyo based company specializing in the translation and localization of Japanese entertainment. It is particularly active in manga and video game localization. It specializes in Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation, but also handles European language localization as well. It has worked on titles for companies including Capcom, Koei-Tecmo, Namco-Bandai, Konami, Taito, Square-Enix, and Platinum Games. Credits include Dragon Quest VIII, the Ninja Gaiden series, the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, Lollipop Chainsaw,Lost Planet 3, and the 2014 remake of Strider.
The koto-furunushi is a fictitious being from Japanese folklore. It is a Yōkai and is said to be harmless to humans. The koto-furunushi is very similar to the yokai biwa-bokuboku.
Kappa-dera (かっぱ寺), also known as Sōgen Temple, is a Zen Buddhist temple in the Kappabashi area of Tokyo and is named after the kappa, a Japanese folklore figure.
Bakemono no e, also known by its alternate title Bakemonozukushie, is a Japanese handscroll of the Edo period depicting 35 bakemono from Japanese folklore. The figures are hand-painted on paper in vivid pigments with accents in gold pigment. Each bakemono is labeled with its name in hand-brushed ink. There is no other writing on the scroll, no colophon, and no artist's signature or seal.
In/Spectre, also known as Invented Inference, is a 2011 Japanese novel published by Kodansha and written by Kyo Shirodaira with illustrations by Hiro Kyohara. In 2019 it was republished with illustrations by Chasiba Katase as part of a series. A manga adaptation with art by Katase has been serialized since April 2015 in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Shōnen Magazine R and since December 2019, also in Monthly Shōnen Magazine. It has been collected in twenty tankōbon volumes. The manga is published in North America by Kodansha Comics. An anime television series adaptation produced by Brain's Base aired between January and March 2020, with the second season aired between January and March 2023.