The Dark Side of Japan: Ancient Black Magic, Folklore, Ritual

As a long time reader of Antonys work, it's about time we had this book, it serves as a companion to a lot of his previous works where translations come from the mouths of samurai who talk about the esoteric and spiritual as though the reader must already understand, well now we can understand.Illustrated brilliantly and filled with information essential for all those interested in Japan and its history, this book is more proof Antony is always a step ahead of everyone else in this field.

Birthday gift for teenage son.

Just received this as a gift, my love of Japanese culture is well know to my family and friends! Loved this. I even saw a spider this morning and thought about the gift :)Great book, love the illustrations too! Well worth it if you are into anything Japanese, anything mystical or magical. Great read from start to finish!

General:Certain aspects of this book I really enjoyed and others left a lot to be desired. I was tempted to give this 3 stars at first, but if I am honest, it does deserve 4 stars in the end. It’s a great introduction book to the field of the paranormal/dark magic in Japan. Which is already a bit of a gem, considering that most books western audiences have access to revolves only Yokai and occasionally Yurei. It’s obvious the author has done a lot of research and presents it in a very easy to read style. As mentioned, it does feel like more of an introduction to the topic. I would have loved for their to be more in-depth chapters (it is on the smaller side, page number wise) as the author would start talking about potentially incredibly fascinating topics but then it would move into the next. I have it as a paperback and kindle. The paperback I bought in store but the kindle version was delivered extremely quickly (for obvious reasons) and is very well formatted (not always a given).Pros:1) well written and laid out.2) quality content.3) easy to read.Cons:1) too short.2) more of an introduction to the field, rather then an extensive study.3) some chapters contain more information then others, which can make it feel slightly off of balance.

'The Dark Side of Japan' is a somewhat interesting book that covers the monsters, magic, folklore and demons of Japan. According the Introduction by the author, the book was something of a side project that he undertook while waiting for translations for his other works and this does unfortunately show in places as many of the entries in the book are rather light on detail and mainly just state information with little in the way of context or analysis, especially in the Charms and Talismans section. While this can be a little annoying in places, the book is still relatively enjoyable and quick to read and could prove to be a good starting point for someone just starting to get interested in Japanese folklore. Having said that, however, there was still some very interesting parts in the book, despite its brevity, with some sections and short stories (such as the information on omens and some of the ghost stories) inspiring me to further study. The book includes a number of pictures that are reasonably good, as well as illustrations for various hand signs and omens.As I have said before, this book would probably be of most use to those who are new to the subject of Japanese superstitions, but I do feel that it could be of interest to anyone with in interest in the subject. Overall, I feel that the book is worth around three and a half stars as it is interesting but not spectacular.