Japanese fantasy?

So the program I am currently taking at Evergreen State is primarily involved in an exploration of Japanese fantasy and the grotesque throughout the history of the country. Although it is a broad subject, I did have certain expectations going in. I thought the focus of the course would concern folklore, mythology and fantastic tales of samurai (which I wrongly equated with the romanticized European knight) facing otherworldly foes.

In actuality, the program focuses more on what is commonly referred to as magical realism, which is sometimes considered a sub-genre of fantasy. Many of the assigned readings have had a touch of the surreal or muted elements of the fantastic, but these are not necessarily what I myself consider true fantasy.

On a whim, I decided to do a Google search using the term "Japanese Fantasy" and see what the consensus on the subject is amongst the multitudes on the internet. To my surprise, there does not actually seem to be a consensus of any sort. The top 25 search results yielded everything from a list of Japanese fantasy authors, manga, a Japanese fantasy baseball team (of all things) and pornography. An image search on Google using the same search criteria brings up a large number of pictures which are either outright erotica or bordering on such.

I then refined my search, adding the word "literature". Surprisingly, the very program I am taking at Evergreen came up in the top 10 search results. I have come to the conclusion that the fantasy genre as it exists in America and other western countries is almost absent in Japan outside of manga, anime and video games. Based on this conclusion (which may be erroneous), I will begin exploring some of the themes and elements I associated with Japanese fantasy prior to taking this class in an attempt to connect them with my new understanding (or lack thereof) of the subject.

Finally, I have to apologize for the dry nature of this post, and I promise to try and make future postings more entertaining and frequent!