Yoshino often reinterprets traditional Japanese umi no yōkai (e.g., umibōzu , samebito ). In the short story “The Lighthouse and the Umibōzu,” the monster is a lonely shipwrecked sailor transformed by grief—a commentary on post-war trauma and the loss of maritime heritage.
, a giant black-headed spirit that rises from calm waters to snap ships in two, or the , a shark-like monster with a barbed tail. Spiritual Symbology
(creator of This Monster Wants to Eat Me ) draw on these traditions, depicting sea-dwelling yōkai like mermaids as "beautiful and scary" entities with an "ominous flavor". : Modern artists like Momo Yoshino