When it comes to monstrous creatures, Japanese mythology has it all. Ghosts, demons, giant chickens, gelatinous blobs, nothing is too implausible or unrealistic when it comes to the mythology of the Land of the Rising Sun.

If you can’t tell your Basan from your Nuppeppō, you might be interested in the new reference guide The Book of the Hakutaku: a Bestiary of Japanese Monsters, which will feature over 100 beautiful illustrations of every creature from Japanese folklore. The book’s already fully funded on Kickstarter, with over 15 times its goal of $3,000 already in the bag.

The Book of the Hakutaku was written and illustrated by Matthew Meyer, and will be the third in his series of books on Far East mythology, with the previous entries being The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons and The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits. If you’re interested in contributing, you might enjoy catching a glimpse of some of Meyer’s beautiful and terrifying illustrations in the Kickstarter video below.

The Book of the Hakutaku: a Bestiary of Japanese Monsters Official Synopsis

One of the most interesting things about yokai is that there are so many of them. Even after three yokai encyclopedias, there are still hundreds of yokai left to cover!

Yokai have always been part of Japanese culture. Within each period of history new yokai were imagined, invented, and imported into Japanese folklore. Some were once worshiped as gods, but degenerated into amusing spirits as they were abandoned by later generations. Others were brought over from foreign countries and incorporated into the local folklore. Still others were invented by artists, writers, and storytellers to appeal to the strong demand for ghost stories, or as political commentary during periods of heavy censorship.

The Book of the Hakutaku will introduce readers to the wide variety of different types of yokai, including cross-cultural yokai. Over the centuries, countless foreign gods, myths, and spirits were absorbed, reinterpreted, and transformed into an inseparable part of Japan’s own folklore. A large number of the yokai featured in this book have origins in China, India, and even further west.