KAIBYO: THE SUPERNATURAL CATS OF JAPAN
“Zack Davisson has followed his excellent book Yurei with this look at the magical cats of Japan, and it is stunning. The text and illustrations are beautiful and informative, bringing these cats to life on the pages.”
Zack Davisson’s latest book explores the magic cats of Japan, from the bakeneko to the nekomata to true folklore behind the ubiquitous “lucky cat” called the maneki neko. Davisson iilluminates the vast realm of kaibyo, or supernatural cats, with historical and modern cultural context. Lushly illustrated in full color with dozens of ukiyo-e prints and drawings. A must-have book for the Japanophile and cat-lover alike! First in a forthcoming series about the supernatural creatures of Japan.
Reviews:
‘Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan’: Traditionally spooky felines – Japan Times
NARROW ROAD
Fox and Frog are friends, but they are also a pair of road-traveling, yokai-fighting Zen monks on a mission. What is the mission? Where are they going? These answers can only be found on the NARROW ROAD stretching in front of them …
Hellboy + Wind in the Willows + Obscure 12th Century Japanese literature. NARROW ROAD is a collaboration between Zack Davission and artist Mark Morse. Zack and Mark came together over a shared love of traditional Japanese folklore, Dharmic wisdom, and traveler’s tales like those of the wandering monk Ikkyu, the poet Basho, and contemporary Dharma bums like Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder. Their goal is to blend these traditions of philosophy, folklore, and storytelling into an exciting journey of two friends.
A little adventure. A little wisdom. Good times. Now taking orders here:
http://www.gatelessgatestudio.com/narrow-road/
YUREI: THE JAPANESE GHOST
“Yurei — ghosts, souls, spirits, or consciousness — are not just a subset of Japanese monsters (yokai) and Zack Davisson’s new book makes that clear. Informative, well written and nicely illustrated, Yurei: The Japanese Ghost explores the many aspects of Japanese religion and folk beliefs as they relate to life, death and everything in between.”–Ronald Morse, original translator of Legends of Tono (Tono Monogatari)
“I lived in a haunted apartment.” Zack Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan’s ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Eerie red marks on the apartment’s ceiling kept Zack and his wife on edge. The landlord warned them not to open a door in the apartment that led to nowhere. “Our Japanese visitors had no problem putting a name to it . . . they would sense the vibes of the place, look around a bit and inevitably say ‘Ahhh . . . yurei ga deteru.’ There is a yurei here.”
Combining his lifelong interest in Japanese tradition and his personal experiences with these vengeful spirits, Davisson launches an investigation into the origin, popularization, and continued existence of yurei in Japan. Juxtaposing historical documents and legends against contemporary yurei-based horror films such as The Ring, Davisson explores the persistence of this paranormal phenomenon in modern day Japan and its continued spread throughout the West.
Zack Davisson 