living folklore
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The Kappa, the dish-crowned water-imp of Japanese folklore, is a cheerful modern mascot concealing a feared river-demon that drowned children. This field study recovers its dark authentic heart — the drowning, the shirikodama, the bow that spills its life — and its role as a loving warning, within a living yokai tradition.
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Baba Yaga, the ambiguous crone of the chicken-legged hut, is the supreme figure of the Slavic dark — devourer and helper at once. This field study examines her tales and attributes, and asks why Slavic folklore runs darker than the West: harder land, harder history, and a better-preserved, less-sanitized pagan root.