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Entity Classification
Unpredictable supernatural beings that may deceive, frighten, punish, assist or interact with humans.
129 documented entities
Fairies, Yōkai and Trickster Beings
Ancient Greek and Hellenistic traditions
Agathos Daimon is the benevolent 'good spirit' of Greek religion, associated with household prosperity, protection, wine, fertility and the unseen fortune of place and family.
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Samoan, Tokelauan and wider Polynesian traditions
Aitu are a broad class of spirits and supernatural beings in several Polynesian traditions, including ancestral powers, local presences, dangerous beings and figures later reinterpreted…
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Japanese modern urban-legend traditions
Aka Manto is the masked or concealed presence said to appear in school lavatories and offer a fatal choice between red and blue paper, cloak…
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Japanese yōkai traditions
Akaname is the yōkai of neglected bathhouses and accumulated grime, depicted crouching near tubs and licking filth with an unnaturally long tongue.
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Philippine traditions, especially Tinguian/Itneg traditions of northern Luzon
Alan are female supernatural beings in Tinguian/Itneg tradition, described with wings, backward-pointing fingers and toes, and an ambiguous nature that can include child-rearing, danger and…
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Yucatec Maya and wider Maya traditions
Alux is the small guardian moving through the milpa, a presence preserved in Yucatec Maya and wider Maya traditions traditions of the unseen world.
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Japanese traditions
Amabie is the prophetic sea being recorded in 1846, said to predict abundant harvest followed by epidemic and to instruct people to copy and display…
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Japanese traditions
Amikiri is the net-cutting yōkai depicted by Toriyama Sekien with a crustacean-like or serpentlike body and sharp claws. Its surviving identity is inseparable from a…
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Micronesian and wider Oceanian traditions
Aniti is a regional Oceanian spirit term recorded in several island-language and colonial sources, referring variously to gods, ancestors, nonhuman spirits or dangerous presences.
Read profileFairies, Yōkai and Trickster Beings
Irish and Scottish Gaelic traditions
Aos Sí and Daoine Sìth are the otherworld people associated with ancient mounds, hidden dwellings, dangerous beauty, seasonal crossings and a strict economy of respect,…
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Japanese regional yōkai traditions
Azuki-arai is the unseen or briefly glimpsed being heard washing red beans beside rivers and ravines, often while singing that it will wash beans or…
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Japanese traditions
Bake-kujira is the spectral whale skeleton said to move through coastal waters accompanied by strange birds and fish. The legend turns the hunted whale into…
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Indigenous North American traditions, especially selected Plateau and Northwest communities
Basket Woman is a child-warning and ogress-like figure in several Indigenous North American traditions, usually associated with a large basket, disobedient children and danger beyond…
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Lithuanian and Baltic traditions
Baubas is a Lithuanian bogey being invoked in warnings to children, associated with darkness, disobedience, hidden corners and the fear of an undefined presence approaching…
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English folklore, especially Leicestershire
Black Annis is the clawed hag of Leicestershire tradition, associated with a cave in the Dane Hills, the taking of children and lambs, and a…
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Northern English and British folklore traditions
Boggarts are troublesome household, farm and landscape spirits of northern English tradition, known for moving objects, frightening animals, spoiling work and following families who attempt…
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Cornish folklore and maritime traditions
Bucca is a Cornish supernatural power associated with sea, storms, mines, offerings and local place, appearing in later accounts as black and white forms or…
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Gaelic Irish and Scottish traditions
The Cailleach is the ancient hag or veiled woman of Gaelic tradition, associated with winter, sovereignty, landscape formation, animals, storms and the seasonal power that…
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Amazonian Indigenous and regional traditions of Peru and western Amazonia
Chullachaki is the Amazonian forest being who assumes the appearance of a trusted person while betraying its identity through mismatched, animal-like or reversed feet.
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Japanese yōkai and tsukumogami traditions
Chōchin-obake is the transformed paper lantern that develops a face, one eye, a long tongue and independent movement after age, neglect or supernatural animation.
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Irish folklore traditions
The Clurichaun is a solitary Irish fairy associated with wine cellars, drinking, household protection and ruinous mischief when offended.
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Welsh mining folklore
Coblynau are Welsh mine spirits whose tapping, laughter and hidden labor could warn miners, reveal ore or announce danger beneath the earth.
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Indigenous Brazilian and wider Amazonian traditions
Curupira is the powerful Brazilian forest guardian known for reversed feet, penetrating whistles and punishment of hunters who kill wastefully or violate the law of…
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Japanese mountain, Buddhist and Shugendō-related traditions
Daitengu are the great or high-ranking tengu associated with major sacred mountains, martial knowledge, religious pride and command over lesser tengu.
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Indigenous North American traditions, especially Plains, Great Lakes and Southeastern communities
Deer Woman is a powerful female presence in several Indigenous North American traditions, associated with attraction, warning, sexual danger, justice, transformation and the revealing of…
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Korean folklore
Dokkaebi is the goblin who challenges the living to play, a presence preserved in Korean folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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Korean folklore traditions
Dokkaebi are Korean supernatural beings associated with old objects, fire, wrestling, wealth, riddles, tricks and encounters that test courage or greed.
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Philippine folklore traditions
Duwende are small Philippine beings associated with houses, mounds, trees, gardens, luck, illness and relationships of respect or offense.
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Central American folklore traditions
El Cadejo is the spectral dog of Central American tradition, appearing in dark and light forms that may protect night travelers, pursue the intoxicated or…
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Japanese yōkai traditions
Enenra is the smoke yōkai illustrated by Toriyama Sekien as a humanlike presence emerging from fire and curling vapor.
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Philippine folklore traditions
Engkanto are powerful Philippine spirit persons associated with forests, mountains, seas, hidden settlements, beauty, illness, courtship and dangerous hospitality.
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Irish folklore traditions
The Far Darrig is the Red Man of Irish folklore, a solitary fairy trickster associated with grotesque practical jokes, kidnappings, nightmares and forced participation in…
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Ancient Roman and later European traditions
Fauns are Roman rustic spirits associated with woods, pasture, fertility, prophecy, music and the unpredictable contact between cultivated land and wilderness.
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Japanese yōkai and cautionary-tale traditions
Futakuchi-onna is the woman whose concealed second mouth opens at the back of her head, consuming food through hair that moves like living hands.
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Scottish Highland folklore
The Glaistig is a Scottish Highland female spirit associated with green clothing, cattle, estates, water, hunting and a divided reputation as guardian, fairy woman or…
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English folklore, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire
Grindylows are water-dwelling goblin beings of northern English folklore, especially associated with ponds, marshes and the danger of children approaching deep or stagnant water.
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Welsh folklore traditions
Gwyllion are Welsh mountain fairies or female wandering spirits associated with mist, dangerous paths, isolated roads and the disorientation of travelers in high country.
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Japanese yōkai traditions
Hitotsume-kozō is the one-eyed child or novice monk who appears on roads and near houses, startling witnesses with a single central eye.
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Japanese ghost and yōkai traditions
Hone-onna is the bone woman: a skeletal female apparition who retains beauty, clothing and desire until the witness perceives the corpse beneath the illusion.
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Romanian and Balkan traditions
Iele are Romanian female spirits associated with nocturnal dancing, wild places, music, illness, enchantment and dangerous seasonal nights.
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Japanese traditions
Iso-onna is the woman of the rocky shore, a coastal yōkai associated with wet hair, seduction, blood loss and the dangerous edge between land and…
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Japanese traditions
Isonade is the immense sea creature whose barbed tail sweeps sailors and shoreline travelers into the water. Toriyama Sekien’s encyclopedic image gave visual form to…
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Japanese traditions
Ittan-momen is a long white strip of cloth said to fly through the night and coil around the head or neck of travelers. Strongly associated…
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Guaraní and Paraguayan traditions
Jasy Jatere is the Guaraní childlike being of the forest and midday siesta, known for a hypnotic whistle, a magical staff and the taking or…
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English folklore, especially Lancashire and northern counties
Jenny Greenteeth is the green-skinned water hag of northern English folklore, said to wait beneath ponds, canals and weed-covered water for children and vulnerable travelers.
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Ancient Greek and later occult traditions
Kakodaimon is the harmful or evil daimon of Greek language and later occult thought, representing destructive spiritual influence, ill fortune or a malevolent personal presence.
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Japanese traditions
Kamaitachi are cutting-wind yōkai associated with sudden painless wounds received in snow country and mountain passes. Edo scholars and artists transformed an invisible injury into…
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Japanese folklore
Kappa is the river child waiting beneath the surface, a presence preserved in Japanese folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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Japanese tsukumogami and illustrated yōkai traditions
Karakasa Kozō is the transformed paper umbrella with one eye, one leg and a long tongue, one of the most recognizable object-yōkai in Japanese popular…
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Japanese tengu and mountain traditions
Karasu-Tengu are crow- or bird-faced tengu associated with mountains, flight, martial skill and service beneath more powerful daitengu.
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Japanese yōkai and object-spirit traditions
Kasa-obake is a popular Japanese umbrella yōkai, usually imagined as a one-eyed, one-legged animated paper umbrella with a long tongue.
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Lithuanian and Baltic traditions
Kaukas is a Lithuanian household and wealth-bearing spirit, often imagined as a small being that brings grain, food or property to a favored household.
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Japanese Buddhist, Shintō and yōkai traditions
Kijin is a fierce spirit or deity whose terrifying form may express hostility, punishment, guardianship or divine power rather than simple evil.
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Japanese Shinto and folkloric traditions
Kitsune is the fox with many faces and a memory of centuries, a presence preserved in Japanese Shinto and folkloric traditions traditions of the unseen…
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Cornish and British mining folklore
Knockers are Cornish mine spirits known through tapping, hidden labor, warnings, theft of food and an uneasy relationship with miners working beneath the earth.
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Japanese regional yōkai traditions
Konaki-jiji is the yōkai heard crying like an abandoned infant, then revealed as an old man whose weight increases until the person carrying him is…
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Japanese modern urban-legend traditions
Kuchisake-onna is the masked woman who stops children or solitary pedestrians, asks whether she is beautiful and reveals a mouth cut from cheek to cheek.
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Chinese mythographic and classical traditions
Kui is the one-legged being of classical Chinese tradition, described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as an ox-like creature whose appearance brings storm…
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Native Hawaiian traditions
Kupua are powerful transforming beings of Hawaiian tradition whose forms may cross human, animal, plant, elemental and divine boundaries.
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Guaraní and Paraguayan traditions
Kurupí is a Guaraní fertility and wilderness being, famous in Paraguayan folklore for an enormously extended sexual organ and for stories connecting uncontrolled desire, pregnancy…
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Colombian and Andean-Amazonian regional traditions
La Patasola is the one-legged female being of Colombian forest and mountain tradition who appears beautiful from a distance, lures solitary men and then reveals…
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Central American folklore traditions
La Siguanaba is the Central American apparition who appears as a beautiful woman from behind, lures unfaithful or intoxicated men and reveals a horse-like, skull-like…
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Afro-Ecuadorian and Afro-Colombian Pacific traditions
La Tunda is the shape-shifting female forest being of the Afro-Pacific coast who imitates relatives, abducts or enchants victims and keeps them in a state…
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Latvian and Lithuanian traditions
Lauma is a Baltic female spirit associated with forests, water, spinning, childbirth, fate, abandoned children, beauty and punishment.
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Irish folklore
Leprechaun is the solitary cobbler guarding buried gold, a presence preserved in Irish folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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Multiple Indigenous North American traditions
Little People is an English umbrella term for numerous community-specific Indigenous beings associated with caves, forests, mounds, protection, mischief, medicine and hidden societies.
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Guaraní, Paraguayan and Río de la Plata folklore traditions
Luisón is the feared Guaraní and Paraguayan being associated with the seventh son, a large black dog or corpse-eating animal, graveyards, night wandering and inherited…
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Papua New Guinean and Melanesian traditions
Masalai are powerful spirits associated with particular places, clans, waterways, forests, caves and ancestral relationships in Papua New Guinea.
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Native Hawaiian traditions
Menehune are the legendary hidden people of Hawaiʻi associated with night construction, fishponds, temples, roads and works completed with extraordinary speed.
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Irish folklore traditions
Merrow are Irish merfolk associated with the sea, red caps, intermarriage, drowned wealth, hidden homes and the dangerous boundary between coastal households and the underwater…
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Japanese traditions
Mikoshi-nyūdō is the road yōkai that appears first as a monk or shadow and grows taller the more a traveler looks upward. It weaponizes perspective,…
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Japanese traditions
Mokumokuren is the many-eyed yōkai of damaged shōji screens, created or crystallized by Toriyama Sekien’s eighteenth-century imagination. It turns neglect of the household boundary into…
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Japanese court, Buddhist and yōkai traditions
Mononoke is a premodern Japanese term for dangerous, afflicting or possessing presences whose identity may remain unseen while illness, obsession and altered speech reveal their…
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Native Hawaiian traditions
Moʻo are powerful Hawaiian reptilian and water-associated beings, often female, connected with freshwater pools, fishponds, caves, chiefly genealogy, guardianship and dangerous transformation.
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Japanese traditions
Mujina is a historically unstable name applied to badgers, raccoon dogs and shape-shifting animal beings. Internationally it became famous through Lafcadio Hearn’s tale of a…
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Japanese ritual traditions of the Oga Peninsula and Akita
Namahage are masked visiting beings of the Oga Peninsula who enter homes around the New Year, admonish laziness and wrongdoing, bless households and renew communal…
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Japanese kaidan and yōkai traditions
Noppera-bō is the faceless apparition that first appears human, then wipes away eyes, nose and mouth to reveal a blank surface.
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Japanese and East Asian transformation traditions
Nukekubi is the form of transformed person whose head detaches from the body at night, flying or crawling in search of food, blood, prey or…
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Cherokee traditions
Nunnehi are immortal or supernatural Cherokee people associated with mountain towns, mounds, protection, music and aid to communities in danger.
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Tagalog and broader Philippine folklore traditions
Nuno sa Punso is the old man of the mound, a small but powerful Philippine land being associated with anthills, earthen rises, permission, illness and…
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Japanese traditions
Nurarihyon is the elusive elderly yōkai who enters a busy household, drinks tea and behaves with such effortless authority that no one challenges him. Earlier…
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Japanese traditions
Nure-onna is the wet-haired woman with a serpentine lower body who appears beside shorelines and rivers carrying a bundled object. The encounter begins with apparent…
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Japanese traditions
Nurikabe is the invisible or suddenly appearing wall that blocks night travelers, especially in western Japanese folklore. It transforms lost direction into architecture: the road…
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Japanese folklore, language and yōkai traditions
Obake and bakemono are broad Japanese terms for transformed, changing or uncanny beings, including animal shape-shifters, animated objects and apparitions.
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Japanese traditions
Obake and bakemono are broad Japanese terms for changing, transformed or monstrous beings rather than one single species of yōkai.
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Japanese religious, literary and folklore traditions
Oni are among Japan’s most enduring fierce beings, appearing as man-eating ogres, hell wardens, disease powers, mountain adversaries, transformed humans and ritualized outsiders.
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Māori traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Patupaiarehe is the mist people playing flutes above the forest, a presence preserved in Māori traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand traditions of the unseen world.
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Chinese anomaly-tale and tree-spirit traditions
Penghou is the dog-like spirit said to inhabit an ancient tree, famously described in Chinese anomaly literature as emerging when the trunk is cut.
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Guaraní and Paraguayan traditions
Pombero is the small, dark, hairy Guaraní night being of forest, field and household edge, known for whistles, animal protection, gifts, mischief and dangerous retaliation…
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Wampanoag and Northeastern Woodlands traditions
Pukwudgie is a small woodland being associated especially with Wampanoag and regional Northeastern traditions, known for mischief, danger, magic and an uneasy relationship with human…
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Latvian traditions
Puķis is a Latvian household and wealth-bringing spirit, often appearing as a fiery dragon, snake, animal or object that enriches one family by stealing from…
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Irish, Welsh and wider Celtic folklore
Púca is the black shape waiting at the crossroads, a presence preserved in Irish, Welsh and wider Celtic folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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Japanese thunder, natural-history and yōkai traditions
Raijū is the thunder beast said to descend with lightning, take animal form and leave clawed or scorched traces where storms strike.
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Anglo-Scottish Border folklore
Redcap is the blood-stained goblin of the border ruins, a presence preserved in Anglo-Scottish Border folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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Japanese traditions
Rokurokubi are long-necked or head-separating beings whose ordinary daytime appearance conceals nocturnal transformation. The tradition joins moral curse, involuntary condition, predation and the terror of…
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Brazilian Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and popular traditions
Saci is the one-legged Brazilian trickster associated with whirlwinds, red caps, pipes, knotted manes, spoiled work and the unstable meeting of Indigenous, African and European…
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Japanese traditions
Samebito is the shark-man of the sea, a rough-skinned nonhuman person whose tears become precious jewels in the medieval and early modern tale tradition. Unlike…
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Bulgarian and South Slavic traditions
Samodiva is the Bulgarian wild maiden spirit associated with mountains, springs, dance, beauty, healing knowledge, illness and dangerous encounters with shepherds and heroes.
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South Slavic and Balkan traditions
Samovila is a South Slavic wild female spirit associated with mountains, forests, springs, storms, dance, beauty and the punishment of those who disturb her territory.
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Japanese traditions
Satori is the mind-reading mountain yōkai that speaks a person’s thought before it can be voiced. The being turns privacy into exposure and makes the…
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Japanese onmyōdō, court legend and magical folklore traditions
Shikigami are spirits or spirit-agents associated with onmyōdō specialists, commanded for divination, protection, surveillance, attack or ritual labor.
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Ancient Roman traditions
Silvani are the plural manifestations or localized forms of Silvanus, Roman powers associated with woods, fields, flocks, boundaries and different zones of an estate.
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Cornish folklore traditions
Spriggans are Cornish fairy beings associated with ancient ruins, barrows, treasure, weather, child exchange and the ability to expand from small form into terrifying giant…
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Selected Indigenous traditions of the Pacific Northwest
Stick Indians is an English-language label applied to dangerous or uncanny forest beings in several Pacific Northwest Indigenous traditions, often associated with whistles, abduction and…
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Romanian traditions
Sânziene are Romanian midsummer female beings associated with flowers, fertility, healing, divination, dance and the dangerous power of a sacred seasonal night.
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Irish Gaelic traditions
Sídhe is an Irish Gaelic term whose meanings include otherworld mounds and, by extension, the beings associated with them.
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Papua New Guinean and Melanesian traditions
Tambaran refers to powerful ancestral, spirit-house and male-initiation traditions in parts of Papua New Guinea, especially the Sepik region.
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Japanese folklore
Tanuki is the laughing shape beneath the traveller’s hat, a presence preserved in Japanese folklore traditions of the unseen world.
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CHamoru traditions of Guåhan and the Mariana Islands
Taotao Mo'na are the spirits or continuing presences of the ancient CHamoru people, associated with ancestral land, latte sites, caves, banyan trees, illness, protection and…
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Japanese Buddhist and folkloric traditions
Tengu is the mountain power behind the red face, a presence preserved in Japanese Buddhist and folkloric traditions traditions of the unseen world.
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Japanese Buddhist temple and vengeance traditions
Tesso is the Iron Rat, the vengeful transformation associated with the monk Raigō, whose grievance against imperial and rival-temple power becomes a supernatural army of…
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Māori traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Tipua is a Māori term for supernatural beings, extraordinary creatures and natural forms understood as embodying nonhuman power, including trees, rocks, animals and guardians of…
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Japanese regional folklore and modern cryptid traditions
Tsuchinoko is the short, thick-bodied snake-like being of Japanese regional lore, famous for unusual movement, jumping ability, strange vocalization and modern capture rewards.
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Japanese traditions
Tsukumogami are old tools and household objects that acquire spirit, agency and often resentment after long service. Medieval picture scrolls turn discarded artifacts into a…
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Polynesian and Oceanian traditions
Tupua is a Polynesian term used in various traditions for extraordinary, supernatural or manifested beings whose forms may be ancestral, divine, monstrous or place-bound.
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Māori traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand
Tūrehu are supernatural forest and mountain people in Māori tradition, often associated with mist, pale or reddish appearance, flute music, hidden settlements and dangerous encounters.
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Japanese Buddhist, ghost and yōkai traditions
Ubume is the spirit or transformed presence of a woman who died in pregnancy or childbirth, appearing with an infant, asking strangers to carry it…
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Japanese traditions
Umi-nyōbō is the sea wife or sea lady, a regional coastal yōkai described as a powerful female figure who comes ashore, steals fish, attacks households…
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Japanese traditions
Umibōzu is the vast dark sea-monk apparition that rises beside ships, overturns vessels or demands a barrel with which to drown the crew. Edo prints…
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South Slavic traditions
Vila are South Slavic female supernatural beings associated with mountains, forests, clouds, water, dance, healing and dangerous retaliation.
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Banks Islands and northern Vanuatu traditions
Vui are powerful nonhuman spirits of the Banks Islands and northern Vanuatu, distinguished in historical accounts from the ghosts of dead people and associated with…
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Japanese yōkai and Buddhist-influenced folklore traditions
Wanyūdō is the flaming ox-cart wheel bearing the face of a tormented man or monk, rolling through night streets and seizing the souls, limbs or…
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Indigenous North American traditions
Water Babies is an English umbrella name applied to several Indigenous North American traditions of small or infant-like beings associated with lakes, springs, rivers and…
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Chinese Daoist, literary and folkloric traditions
Xian are Chinese immortals or transcendents who move beyond ordinary human mortality through divine favor, cultivation, transformation, sacred geography or extraordinary destiny.
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Japanese traditions
Yamabiko is the mountain echo understood as a responding presence rather than empty acoustics. In illustrated yōkai traditions it becomes a small ape-like or doglike…
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Japanese traditions
Yamauba is the mountain woman whose hut stands beyond cultivated land. She can feed, shelter, devour, initiate, raise heroes or embody famine and abandoned age.…
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Chinese traditions
Yao is a broad Chinese category for uncanny, transforming or anomalous beings, often produced when animals, plants or objects acquire power and humanlike form.
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Chinese religious, literary and folkloric traditions
Yaoguai is the broad Chinese category for uncanny, transforming or monstrous beings, especially animals, plants and objects that acquire power, human form or dangerous intelligence.
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Japanese religious, literary, folkloric and popular traditions
Yōkai is the broad Japanese category used for strange, uncanny and supernatural beings ranging from monsters and shape-shifters to object spirits, apparitions and local presences.
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