Akaname, originally uploaded by Craig Arndt.

Akaname: A yokai known as the filth licker. You better keep your bath tub clean or one of these might sneak in and lick it clean, leaving an itchy saliva.

The first illustration for my next Yokai book. To spice things up I'm also going to have comics in this one explaining in better (and funnier) detail what some of these creatures are about.

Today the Dapper Cadaver blog brings you the Japanese Baku, the monster that eats nightmares

Baku are described as something like a monster tapir, or more specifically, having a head something like an elephant, a body something like a large and fat horse, the mane of a lion, and the legs and paws of a tiger.

In your early waking moments, you may call for the Baku, or the Baku may find you while hunting nightmares. The Baku feeds on nightmares. Don't open your eyes though because seeing it may cause new ones. It uses it's trunk to hold the nightmares and suck them up like a vacuum cleaner. Once the nightmare is eaten, you won't remember it happening.

And this is why so many people forget their dreams right before they wake up.

Happy Valentines Day from Dapper Cadaver's Monster-a-Day blog! In honor of Valentines Day I dug deep into world folklore to find the sexiest monster to ever walk the earth. Sure voluptuous mermaids, seductive succubus, or studly centaurs are pretty hot, but for sheer sexiness, nothing is beats a big set of balls. And for big balls, nothing beats the Japanese Tanuki.

The Tanuki is a kind of Raccoon-Dog with a fat belly and a big hat. He's usually seen carrying a bottle of sake because he's drunk and rowdy, and an unpaid bill, which he will never pay. Tanuki also have gigantic balls, and since scrotum skin can change shape, Tanuki can wrap themselves in their own scrotums to turn into anything. Like most shapeshifters, Tanuki are rowdy, playful, lusty, and clever. Definitely a classic trickster, Tanuki run the gamut of being lucky like leprechauns to malicious like hobgoblins, but most falling in between - mischievous.

By now I've probably gotten you so steamed up your just dying to see those balls. Well, here are a few of my favorite Tanuki with giant balls images. Just google tanuki for thousands more. The Japanese love these guys and put them everywhere.

NSFW!

A giant Tanuki whose balls dwarf a tourist

Tanuki doing the classic "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose, except no one is covering their balls and they all have huge erections

Tanuki using their scrotums as drums and sleeping bags

Tanuki beating japanese business men silly with their giant balls

Wow. That was hot. That should put you love birds in the mood. Happy Valentines day!