i love japanese yokai* lore and mythical creatures. it's not just spirits of humans but animals, spirits, ghosts and even 'feelings' that wait to haunt the livi

i love japanese yokai* lore and mythical creatures. it's not just spirits of humans but animals, spirits, ghosts and even 'feelings' that wait to haunt the living. i wrote a series of children's short stories based on yokai at the farm. there is the hyosube which is an eggplant kappa. it is hairy and angry. hates horses and loves eating eggplants. its usually found in vegetable gardens and eats all the eggplants. he has a bowl like indention where there ought to be the top of the skull. it needs to be filled with water all the time because if there is no water, it will die. so it has the habit of creeping into peoples baths and soaking in the bathtubs. people are fearful because if you look into their eyes, you will surely die. eta: thats the lore. in my story, the farmer finds a hyosube destroying his eggplant patch and because he is polite..he bows to the hyosube before running scared away from it. but because the hyosube was also polite, it bows back and the water on top of it's skull bowl empties itself. and its about to die. so the farmer refills it. and the hyosube is grateful and behaves in his garden. and the farmer always leaves something for the hyosube from the harvests. i wrote the story for the hyosube descriptions, but my friends who were moms said it was too much. so i tweaked it into a story to show how even hyosubes are polite and it would be a good idea for all children to be polite to everyone. even hairy dirty hyosubes that steal your garden produce. they seemed to like it better. but i really really enjoyed describing a scary hyosube that splashes around clean bathtubs and makes a mess when it steals into people's homes. you are not even allowed to scare children with stories these days!(/s) mostly i wanted kids to love eggplants. wouldnt kids love eating more eggplants if they knew a hyosube that splashed in a bath tub is also their buddy? https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Hy%C5%8Dsube https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Hy%C5%8Dsube *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai