User:Timothy Perper/Baku (spirit)

I'm following the recommendation of Leebo, who said that I should post this revision here and ask for help. OK, so that's what I'm doing.

This is a revision of the article "Baku (spirit)" which I just completed after posting some of its content to the talk pages of Baku (spirit) and Tapir. The original article has a variety of problems that I've addressed here.

I'm not a Wikipedian -- I'm a subject matter expert, and have no idea at all about how to format the following. Here are some comments.

I've included all the material from the original page except items that had no references or citations (not verifiable, you know). Stuff did get moved around, though.

References -- the links all go where they're supposed to. I just checked them.

Name order -- I use the Japanese name order, family name first, given name second.

I've included a number of elements from the existing page, but I have no idea about their formatting. Some Korean words need to be added from the Baku(spirit) discussion page into the document below. I don't know how to do that.

I could add another picture, but despite the Wikipedia guidelines about copyright, I still think that using those images will violate copyright. The picture on the page should stay there.

The previous people who worked on this article were using a different reference system than I am. I don't know what to do about that.

HOW DO I FIND THIS PAGE AGAIN? It's not under my User page.

So, anyway, if you can help format this and put it in instead of the present article, that would be a help.

Thanks.

Tim Perper


 * Removed the helpme template; am watchlisting this page and the Baku (spirit) article. Will help with the formatting once you post this material there. - Two  Oars   (Rev)  16:31, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

= Baku (spirit) =


 * A baku by Katsushika Hokusai. For other uses, see Baku (disambiguation).

Baku (獏 or 貘) are Japanese supernatural beings that devour dreams and nightmares. They have a long history in Japanese folklore and art, and more recently have appeared in Japanese cartooning (manga and anime).

The Japanese kanji for baku (獏 or 貘) has two pronunciations (baku and mo) and two meanings. The Japanese term “baku” refers to both the traditional dream-devouring creature and to the zoological tapir (e.g., the Malaysian tapir), whereas the term “mo” derives from Mandarin Chinese and refers specifically to the nightmare-devouring creature. In Korean, the terms are --- insert --- maek (Hangul: 맥, Hanja: 貊). In recent years, there have been changes in how the baku is depicted.

History and Description
The traditional Japanese nightmare-devouring baku originates in Chinese folklore and was familiar in Japan as early as the Muromachi period (14th-15th century) (Hori, 2005). Hori (2005) has described the dream-eating abilities attributed to the traditional baku and relates them to other preventatives against nightmare like the use of amulets. Kaii-Yōkai Denshō Database, citing a 1957 paper, and Mizuki (2004) also describe the dream-devouring capacities of the traditional baku.

An early 17th century Japanese manuscript, the Sankai Ibutsu (山海異物), describes the baku as a Chinese mythical chimera with an elephant’s trunk, rhinoceros eyes, an ox tail, and tiger paws, which in belief protected against pestilence and evil, although eating nightmares was not included among its abilities. However, in a 1791 Japanese wood-block illustration, a specifically dream-destroying baku is depicted with an elephant’s head, tusks, and trunk, with horns and tiger’s claws. The elephant’s head, trunk, and tusks are characteristic of baku portrayed in classical era (pre-Meiji) Japanese wood-block prints and in shrine, temple, and netsuke carvings. Writing in the Meiji era, Lafcadio Hearn (1902) described a baku with very similar attributes that was also able to devour nightmares.

Since the 1980s in manga, anime, and other forms of popular culture, the baku appears not as a chimera of an elephant and tiger but as a zoologically recognizable tapir. Examples include work by Takahashi Rumiko in Lum Urusei*Yatsura (1995), Oshii Mamoru’s animated film about Lum, Beautiful Dreamer (1984), Mikimoto Haruhiko (2001; original 1990), and in Pokemon and Digimon (the Drowzee is a baku-like Pokémon, and Digimon features a character called Bakumon [Pokemon and Digimon need citations]. "Baku" is a main character in the Playstation 2 game Dual Hearts, characterized as a "pig" that eats dreams. Japanese poetry based on the dream-eating tapir also exists, where the dream-catcher (“yumekui” in Japanese) is identified as a tapir (link 7). However, not all modern baku/yumekui are tapirs. In Satoshi Kon’s 2007 animated film “Paprika,” Paprika, a young woman who is kami of the Dreamtime, is a baku/yumekui who devours a dream-villain at the film’s climax.

This kind of dream-eating, tapir-shaped baku has also entered non-Japanese popular culture. The picture book "The Dream Eater" by Christian Garrison tells the story of a young boy, Yukio, who meets a baku and brings it to his village [needs citation]. Neil Gaiman’s "The Dream Hunters,” which is based on Japanese mythology, features baku [needs citation]. A video game featuring a dream-eating tapir also exists (link 7).

OK, copied and pasted
Hi, Twooars, if you're around. I checked the links, and they're all OK. I'd keep the external link, because it's a very good example of how baku and tapirs are idenfied with each other in modern pop culch.

The article has some glitches, like some "need citations" that should be fixed. Can you look at it at Baku (spirit)?

And many many thanks for your help.

Timothy Perper 20:49, 9 September 2007 (UTC)