General
An interesting approach to teaching students more about Japan through film. In this curriculum outline, Bachand launches a foray into Japanese history and details films he will use to teach his students. The bit on history is quite helpful in understanding more about the culture of Japan now and then.
A fun and informative site about Japanese folklore and ghosts. Davission, a knowledgeable expert on the subject, is also the author of Yurei: The Japanese Ghost.
This more informal blog article of the Japan Society talks about Japan's supernatural creatures, as well as yurei and obake in Japanese culture today.
Before the inevitable criticism of Wikipedia's open-source variation on encyclopedia writing, I feel it is important to emphasize how much more stringent (and cited) Wikipedia has become since its defamation in the early 2000's. That aside, this Wiki article explains a great deal about yurei, including history, classifications, and exorcism (a topic I did not cover).
A good read on collectivistic cultures. As Japan is a collectivistic culture, it helps in understanding some of the differences between American (individualistic) culture and Japanese culture.
This site may be kid-friendly, but that doesn't make it any less helpful in learning more about Shintoism in a direct, easy-to-understand way.
The Shintoism article for adults. Much more informative and in-depth; BBC does its usual spectacular job.
A neat, albeit short, article on the Sanzu River and Japanese beliefs about it regarding death. I mentioned it only in passing, but it really is worth reading more on.
An interesting article about jizo, the guardians that populate Japan.
A funny article on gaki, or hungry ghosts. It really brings home the humor that kaidan can have.
This article by Michael Hoffman explains quite nicely how Christianity has never really taken ahold of Japan, explaining the history of missionaries in Japan.
A summary of the game. Sadly it's been taken off the market, but the description is accurate to the one in-game.
Images
Translated, the title roughly means "Gaki Soushi (a picture scroll about gaki) 2 (From the Tokyo National Museum 2)" by "Art of Japan." The site contains many images of Japanese art, but this particular URL leads you to a small collection of paintings of gaki.
This is an art installation of "floating, resonating spheres" exhibited at a shrine to Amaterasu in Fukui Prefecture in Japan.
An article on ubume, with some pretty graphic images (har-har) attached. A very nice visual aid to learn about the tragic spirit.
More images of ubume! Along with an article, but as it's in Japanese, it isn't much good if you can't read it. Nonetheless, great images.
An online store with various organic commodities, this particular item is a sack for economic fortune embroidered with an image of a zashiki-warashi, made by Sugiyama Knit Ind.
A blog about youkai news, it also doubles as a fine source for images of some funayurei.
This blog is about dramas and other TV programs, but this particular article is about the film "Home: Itoshi no Zashiki Warashi," or "Home: The Beloved Zashiki Warashi." An alternate English title, "Home: The House Imp" is also extant. One can imagine why I would suggest this article, but beyond the interesting analysis, it also offers screencaps.
A cute image of three ghosts. The title reads "Three Happy Ghosts: Free Illustration."
Meyer is a prolific artist of youkai, illustrating a series called "A-Yokai-A-Day" and even a book. On this site, Meyer not only explains in detail about youkai, but provides enigmatic and lively pictures to go with them. Truly a great reference for learning about youkai.
A tidy online collection of Japanese art across various mediums. While not strictly youkai or obake-related, it's a great image resource to have anyhow if interested in Japanese art.
Wikia, Wikipedia's lesser-known and more community-based sister, is slightly less reliable for information. However, it is great for images!
A Wikipedia article on oni, which is pretty fascinating. Otherwise, the images are a great resource as well.
An archive of posts about horror on Tofugu. An interesting read with plentiful pictures.
A small gallery of images taken from a helicopter, all featuring the Tokyo cityscape at night.
Previously mentioned though Meyer may be, this archive of images he has created are a fun thing to peruse if interested.
A morbid article about Aokigahara, Japan's suicide forest. It's quite gruesome, so please proceed with caution. The imagery of the forest is awe-inspiring as much as it is chilling.
A painting of Oiwa, a pivotal character in the kaidan "Yotsuya Kaidan." The painting illustrates Onoe Matsusuke, an actor, playing the role of Oiwa, who returns as an onryo.
An image of the Library in Building 42, on Google's campus. Pretty neat.
Books
A thorough take on cultural differences (and similarities), among other things.
A book about Felix Tikotin, a prominent European art collector, as well as his fascination with Japanese art and ghosts and demons in Japanese art, among other things.
As the title describes, this book talks about death and the afterlife in Japanese Buddhism. It covers social, religious, and societal impacts and relations between death and the afterlife in Japanese Buddhism and Japan itself. A vital resource.
Another book about Japanese culture and death.
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