The Book for Yōkai

“How do we explain occurrences that don’t easily fit our everyday understandings of the way things work?” — Michael Dylan Foster. In Japan, yōkaiare the manifestation of unexplainable phenomena that take form as creatures, monsters or spirits. Historically, yōkai emerged to explain things that were otherwise fearful, or provided cautionary tales for how to behave, and thus made their way into Japanese folklore. My project uses graphic design to explore the concept of yōkai within contemporary expressive visual communication systems.