inktober/wordtober/drawlloween day 8

[labelleizzy]

day 8 Prompt: Yokai

Yokai is a word I looked up:
I don't know Japanese culture.
Bits. Fragments, only, really.
Kitsune the only example I recognized.
Dim memory that :demon: in that millenia old culture
Means something quite different
than what I might assume.
*
Trickster? Demigod? Supernatural being of uncertain motivations?
Is Yokai more like the Fae of Irish tradition?
Or Coyote in Southwest North America?
*
My ignorance is large.
I don't even know if the word is singular or plural
(I'd guess plural)
Wondering could I compare Loki, Hermes, Anansi, in the same category
(are there female Yokai?)
*
Seanan McGuire has a character who's Kitsune.
That's pretty much my whole experience.
*
There's a whole deep mythology I'm missing.
I may never understand.
*
I forgive myself for my own ignorance
and I pray I'll be lucky enough
or kind enough, or careful enough
that others will forgive me for my ignorance, too.