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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…
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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…
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Festive Folklore Figures
Festive Folklore Figures Various, 10 minute read Folklore Figures in January? Have we missed the memo or are we just recovering from the bliss of Folklore Festivities? No! It’s January 6th which marks Perchtatag and the end of the “Rauhnächten” (the time between the solstice and Epiphany). So in the spirit of Frau Perchta, here is our list of some monstrous creatures of Yuletide! We have previously covered many different types of Christmas tales so look at the list below if you are searching for something specific: If you are interested in Christmas ghosts and the Victorian obsession with them,…
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Sparrow Shorts: The Cottager and His Cat
The Cottager and His Cat Happy New Year, Travellers! Welcome back to the Enchanted Forest. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and are as eager as we are for another exciting year full of new and old stories! This week, Fox is out in the winter wonderland, searching high and low for new tales to share. But do not worry! Fox will be back in a fortnight with her shorts to share! But solo or not, it is still my job to bring old and new tales for you, and that is just what I have done.…
Tales from the Enchanted Forest 