-
Japanese Cat Lit and Cosy Cat Fiction
Happy International Book Lover’s Day! This seems like the perfect intersection to talk about our favourite things – animal tales, books, cats (International Cat Day was yesterday) and translated fiction by women (a month long celebration)! Now, you’ve probably seen them everywhere- books with cats on them welcoming you into a bookshop, a night library, a regular library, a convenience store by the sea, a cafe (of the pottery or full-moon or time travelling variety) or a restaurant of sorts. There has been a boom in translated works, namely from Japanese and Korean authors, that feature ‘cats’ on the cover…
-
Yokai, Yocat: Cat Yokai from Japanese Folklore
Yokai, Yocat! Yokai are the backbone of Japan’s mythology and folklore scene. There are so many to choose from and many of the monsters have short folktales associated with them, so to help us choose we perused Thersa Matsuura’s book of Japanese Folklore and settled on a monster we know best- cats! Over the years on this podcast, we have covered a few Japanese stories, including The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and The Tale of the Boneless Jellyfish, as well as referenced Japanese storytelling traditions and yokai whenever they were relevant to other tales we were…
Tales from the Enchanted Forest 