“Yōkai Daisensō / Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare” (妖怪大戦争) Original release Japanese two-sheet billboard poster, 1968 — excellent unused / unpasted condition (B0 Billboard approx. 103 × 145.6 cm / 40.5 × 57.3 in)

Offered here is an extraordinary large-format original Japanese theatrical billboard poster for Yōkai Daisensō (妖怪大戦争), Daiei’s 1968 tokusatsu fantasy-horror classic directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda. Known internationally as Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare or Spook Warfare, the film was released in Japan on 14 December 1968 and is the celebrated second entry in Daiei’s original late-1960s Yokai Monsters cycle, following Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters and preceding Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts.

Details
Film: 妖怪大戦争
Romanized title: Yōkai Daisensō
Common English titles: Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare / Spook Warfare; also rendered as The Great Yokai War
Release: Japan, 1968
Studio / Distributor: Daiei
Production: Daiei Kyoto
Director: Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Screenplay: Tetsurō Yoshida
Planning / production: Yamato Yashiro
Cinematography: Hiroshi Imai
Art direction: Seiichi Ōta and Shigeru Katō
Music: Sei Ikeno
Starring: Yoshihiko Aoyama, Akane Kawasaki, Osamu Ōkawa, Asao Uchida, Takashi Kanda, with Chikara Hashimoto as Daimon
Format: Japanese B0 two-sheet billboard poster, composed of two B1-size sheets
Approx. size: 103 × 145.6 cm / 40.5 × 57.3 in when assembled
Condition: Excellent unused / unpasted original condition, with strong colour, visible original fold lines, light storage and handling wear, and both original B1 panels preserved

Context
Daiei’s yōkai world: folklore, horror, comedy, and special effects spectacle

Yōkai Daisensō belongs to one of the most distinctive Japanese fantasy-horror cycles of the 1960s. Rather than centering on giant kaiju or conventional ghosts, the film draws from the enormous world of yōkai — supernatural beings from Japanese folklore that can be monstrous, comic, eerie, protective, mischievous, grotesque, or all of these at once.

In the film, a foreign vampire-demon named Daimon awakens from a Babylonian ruin after thousands of years and comes to Japan, where he attacks and possesses a local magistrate. Human resistance proves inadequate, and the country’s native yōkai gather to defend their own realm against the invading monster. KADOKAWA describes the premise as a confrontation between Daimon, awakened from a Babylonian ruin, and the Japanese yōkai who rise together to oppose him.

The Yokai Monsters cycle
A landmark of Japanese folklore cinema

Daiei’s original yōkai series is now regarded as a cornerstone of Japanese folklore-based fantasy cinema. The films combine jidaigeki period-drama settings, tokusatsu effects, elaborate monster suits, puppetry, painted sets, and a theatrical sense of the uncanny. This entry is especially beloved because it gives the yōkai themselves the heroic role: Japan’s strange old spirits become defenders of place, tradition, and supernatural territory.

The result is not simply horror. It is a folklore procession, a monster rally, and a national-mythic battle staged through the practical effects language of 1960s Japanese studio cinema.

Yōkai
Mythical Japanese monsters as the real stars

The poster is particularly desirable because it does what the film does: it turns the yōkai into the attraction. The design identifies and displays a host of mythical Japanese creatures, many of them labelled directly on the artwork.

Visible yōkai include:

Daimon — the towering foreign vampire-demon at the centre, shown with green skin, wings, a skull-belt, and a huge battle-axe.
Rokurokubi — the long-necked woman winding around Daimon’s shoulder.
Karakasa Kozō / Kasa-obake — the one-legged umbrella spirit at upper left.
Abura-sumashi — the small, straw-cloaked spirit near the umbrella monster.
Kappa — the river goblin among the lower group of defenders.
Dorotabō — the mud-field spirit, shown with a staff and fish-like head.
Kyōkotsu — the skeletal ghost form at left.
Hannya — the horned demonic mask figure at lower left.
Aobōzu — the blue monk-like yōkai in the central lower section.
Karasu Tengu — the crow-tengu figure at right.
Umibōzu — the sea monk spirit at lower right.
Hitotsume Kozō — the one-eyed child monk figure in the foreground.
Ikkaku Daiō — the horned “one-horn king” figure leaping near the title.

This is part of the poster’s enduring power. It is not a generic monster image; it is a crowded visual catalogue of Japanese supernatural folklore, presented with the colour, scale, and theatricality of a major studio billboard.

Daimon
A foreign vampire-demon against the native spirits of Japan

At the centre of both film and poster is Daimon, the invading Babylonian vampire-demon. His design is one of the most memorable in Japanese tokusatsu: green, winged, skull-adorned, and barbaric, carrying a flaming axe and towering over the Japanese yōkai around him.

The film’s dramatic structure is essentially a supernatural turf war. Daimon is not merely another local ghost; he is an outside force, a foreign blood-drinking monster entering a Japanese world of older, stranger spirits. The yōkai, usually treated as mischievous or frightening presences, become unlikely defenders. This inversion gives the film its mythic charge.

The film this poster represents
A full-scale monster war in Edo-period Japan

Set in the Edo period, Yōkai Daisensō begins with Daimon’s arrival from an ancient Babylonian site and his invasion of Japan. He takes possession of a magistrate and begins preying on humans, while the local Kappa and other yōkai recognize the threat to their territory. Soon, yōkai from across Japan assemble to confront the foreign demon. WOWOW’s synopsis similarly emphasizes Daimon’s awakening, his possession of the magistrate, and the gathering of yōkai from around Japan after the Kappa’s call for help.

The film’s appeal lies in this unusual mixture: period adventure, supernatural horror, folkloric pageantry, children-in-peril fantasy, and practical monster spectacle. It is eerie, strange, charming, and visually inventive — exactly the tone captured by this poster.

The poster
One of the great graphic statements of Japanese yōkai cinema

This B0 two-sheet design is among the most striking poster images produced for any Japanese monster film of the 1960s.

Key visual elements include:

The monumental Daimon image: the central vampire-demon dominates the composition, looming over the scene with wings, skulls, green skin, and a ceremonial weapon.

The red title lettering: the huge characters 妖怪大戦争 run vertically down the right side in rough, blood-red brush typography, giving the poster immediate impact.

The yōkai ensemble: the surrounding monsters are not background decoration; they are the selling point. The poster presents them almost like a supernatural cast list.

The pale blue-grey field: the misty sky-like background creates a dreamlike stage for the creatures, enhancing the folklore quality of the image.

The foreground drama: the human figure of the one-eyed child monk sprawls across the lower centre, pulling the viewer into the chaos of the battle.

The labelled creatures: the printed yōkai names give the design a documentary quality, as though the poster is both advertisement and monster taxonomy.

At B0 scale, the image becomes far more than a standard film poster. Daimon’s body becomes massive, the red title characters become architectural, and the surrounding yōkai can be studied individually. The poster has the presence of a museum object: part cinema advertising, part folklore chart, part tokusatsu spectacle.

Rarity and survival
An ultra-rare unused B0 billboard poster

Japanese B0 two-sheet billboard posters were made for large-scale theatrical display and were normally composed of two B1-size sheets intended to be pasted together. Because these large posters were often used in cinemas, lobbies, and outdoor display contexts, survival rates are far lower than for standard B2 posters.

This example is especially important because it is unused / unpasted. The two B1 sheets have survived separately rather than being glued down to a wall or billboard. For a 1968 Daiei tokusatsu title with such a devoted following, that is a highly desirable state of preservation.

Its appeal crosses multiple collecting fields: Japanese monster cinema, tokusatsu, Daiei, yōkai folklore, 1960s horror-fantasy posters, practical-effects cinema, and Japanese mythological imagery.

Condition
Excellent unused / unpasted original presentation

This example presents in excellent unused / unpasted condition. The colour remains strong, the printed detail is rich, and the overall image displays beautifully. The poster retains its expected original fold structure, with light storage and handling wear consistent with age. The reverse views show clean paper tone and support the unused character of the two-sheet set.

The two B1 sheets are intended to form one complete B0 billboard image when displayed together. Unlike cinema-used examples that were pasted to boards or walls, this set remains preserved as separate original sheets.

Condition
Excellent unused / unpasted. Please review the photos — they show the exact poster for sale.

Collector’s note

This is a major Japanese fantasy-horror poster: an ultra-rare original B0 two-sheet billboard for Daiei’s 1968 Yōkai Daisensō, featuring one of the most famous and visually crowded yōkai designs of the era. With Daimon towering at the centre and a full assembly of traditional Japanese monsters surrounding him, the poster is both a spectacular piece of cinema advertising and a remarkable piece of Japanese folklore imagery.

For collectors of Daiei tokusatsu, Japanese horror, yōkai cinema, and 1960s monster posters, this is a true cornerstone piece.

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
It is over 57 years old.