Final Paper

Monsters were always likely to been in folklores and myths among many countries. In the oxford dictionary, a term monster is “An imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.” From this definition, we can see that a monster is a creature which frightens people. This is typically true to children. Especially in folklores, monsters are used to discipline children by teaching them moralities. In this paper, I would like to compare and contrast the similarities and difference of a Japanese monster and the Western monster. From this comparison, we will have a better understanding of each other’s culture, and how it developed as a part of its culture.

I chose this topic as my final paper because I simply love the way Japanese monsters are depicted. In Japan, there are many popular culture media, such as books and anime, which features those monsters. Most famous monster stories in Japan is the Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro series. I was fascinated of the monsters that appear in this series when I was little. I loved ghost stories as well. I feel Japan has a boom of monsters once in several years, which those monsters become popular. Most of the monster featured on the show is from Japan. therefore, I was curious how the West depicts it monsters.

First of all, what is exactly a “western monster”? I would like to define this “western monster” as a classical monster that appears in movies and novels. These monsters typically have its origin in legends and myths. For examples, vampires, Frankenstein’s, werewolves, mummies, witches, and so on. In this observation, I would like to use vampires and werewolves as a sample of study.

A vampire, a monster that sucks blood out of people, seems like it developed in Eastern Europe. Th...

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... this observation more difficult. It seems as if Japan has more fortes in study of monsters because yokai has some roots in Shintoism. The further hypothesis which I can study will be that yokai and other monsters have any other influence from outside the country. Unlike the old monsters and yokai, is there is new monsters created nowadays, maybe related to technology.

In conclusion, I found out that the concept of creating a monster is similar in both the West and Japan. However, Japan has more influence in creating them because of the environment of Shintoism. Differences in religion obviously change the way people think, which creates diversity in what one monster is capable of. This means, one monster can be capable of sucking blood and creating new monsters, to old pot moving at night. I feel this diversity that makes these creatures interesting in stories.