Japanese folklore

Japanese folklore encompasses the folk traditions of Japan and the Japanese people.

In Japanese, the term minkan denshō (民間伝承, "transmissions among the folk"^?) is used to describe folklore; the study of folkloristics is known as minzokugaku (民俗学^?). Folklorists also employ the term minzoku shiryō (民俗資料^?) or "folklore material" (民俗資料) to refer to objects and arts they study.

Men dressed as namahage, wearing ogre-like masks and traditional straw capes (mino) make rounds of homes, in an annual ritual of the Oga Peninsula area of the Northeast region. These ogre-men masquerade as kami looking to instill fear in the children who are lazily idling around the fire. This is a particularly colorful example of folk practice still kept alive.

A parallel custom is the secretive Akamata-Kuromata^[] ritual of the Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa which does not allow itself to be photographed.

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