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I am interested in the place that these mythical beings refered to as "Hengoyokai" held in ancient Japanese culture. I always think of that wonderful scene in Ran where the Lord Jiro's General warns him about mischievous badger which on the loose.
My question is this: did the persons of ancient Japan take such creatures/beings literally, or where they more akin to our modern day grain-of-salt views on leperechauns, elves, and whatnot.
It was probably not a badger but a tanuki. For some reason the Japanese always translate it as badger. They are a real animal who regularly appears in childrens stories and folk tales. One of my favourite is click clack mountain - where the naughty tanuki ends up being burnt alive!
As to whether they believed in them in a literal sense... maybe the comment was the equivalent of us saying 'there is a gremlin in the works'.
But one mustn't forget that the Shintô religion was, and is, almost pantheistic, as Eastern religions generally turn out. It's rather hard to draw a clear line between "superstition" and the work of the kami, not to mention karma.
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"The right use of the sword is that it should subdue the barbarians while lying gleaming in its scabbard. If it leaves its sheath it cannot be said to be used rightly."
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Legacy
Wouldn't call it Pantheistic myself - but that's just semantics.
I think throughout human history there have been superstitious people and unsuperstitious people. Some societies tended toward it more than others - but I think Japan would have been equivable to pre-enlightenment England. As for Finland - you still have an active animist religion in your country!
Personally, I'm a little superstitious.
I believe the warning about the badger/tanuki in Ran was a sly reference to Lady Kaeda.
By the accounts I've read, Japanese historically believed there was a supernatural (actually part of nature to them) They were animistic.
Even today, I believe some Japanese, especially followers of animistic Shinto, have a vague feeling that magical animals, demons, and mischievous spirits exist.
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A murky puddle becomes clear when it is still.