Lafcadio Hearn was one of the earliest Western writers to publish stories and essays about supernatural Japan. He arrived in Japan in 1890 and fell in love with the country and its people. After marrying a samurai's daughter, he became a Japanese citizen and a Buddhist, and changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi. He began publishing books on Japan in 1894, soon becoming known as the great interpreter of all things Japanese to the West. His fourteen books on Japan include Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Kokoro and A Japanese Miscellany. Yei Theodora Ozaki was born in Victorian England to a Japanese father and an English mother. After her parents' marriage ended, Ozaki began a life of world travel, raised by her mother in England before joining her father in Japan. As an adult she traveled across Europe, where she began to retell in English the traditional Japanese stories she loved.

She later married Yukio Ozaki, a Japanese politician, and went on to publish several collections of Japanese folk tales. Sakyu is an illustrator in Osaka whose work frequently depicts yokai and other supernatural beings. Blending traditional styles with modern content, she brings humorous insight to life in contemporary Japan. Since graduating from Kyoto Saga University of Arts with a specialization in woodblock prints, her work has appeared in museums in Japan and abroad, including at the Museum of International Folk Art exhibit "Yokai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan," as well as in the Encyclopedia of Yokai All Around Us (Seitosha, 2020) and the video game Samurai Bringer .