How would you translate kitsune, tanuki, tengu, yuki-onna, katanas, sushi, miko, onmyouji, Buddhism, Shintoism...

How would you translate kitsune, tanuki, tengu, yuki-onna, katanas, sushi, miko, onmyouji, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Taoism into a Western-style D&D fantasy setting (default cosmology) without actually calling them that, and while keeping a Western aesthetic?

Those are two different cultures and mentalities. You can't just mix them. It's like trying to translate sugar into salt.
If you want oriental stuff, just play oriental setting.

Dark Souls.

Wouldn't.

Are shapeshifting foxes, illusionist crows, snow maidens, animistic spirit worship, etc. exclusive to Japanese culture?

by purging anyone that wants to play a fucking fox person, thats how

Sure, a lot of cultures have similar themes and tropes woven into folklore, but almost all of them have their own unique characteristics and traits. You can't just swap tengu with leshy or yuki-onna with snegurochka without losing what makes them distinct. These uniqueness lies in deep cultural ties and mentality, which couldn't be easily translated.
Chicory is chicory, coffee is coffee. They might taste similar, but they're two different things.

Kitsune - Werefoxes or maybe foxweres
Tengu - Harpy wizards?
Yuki-onna - the Snow Queen or Jack Frost r63
katana - just call it sword, no sense to have one in iron-rich areas
sushi - fish'n'(fried) rice
miko - nuns
onmyouji - divination, necromancy (not in the DnD summoning undead style)
Buddhism - monk's ki
Shintoism/Taoism - druid-ism

>katana - just call it sword, no sense to have one in iron-rich areas

It's a hand-and-a-half cavalry saber adapted for use on foot. There's nothing inherently bad about the katana that'd stop it from being used anywhere.

Why not import the culture too but keep the Western aesthetic?

I suppose you can do that, but I'm not really sure what you mean by "Western aesthetic".

>without actually calling them that
Why would you change the names? Names are a convenience, when you talk about a "kitsune" everyone knows what you mean. If you want something new then by all means make it, but there's nothing wrong with combining existing ideas.

Or you could research your own local folklore (which is rich and fantastic) instead of half-breeding your weeaboo funfacts into a bland slurry

it's simple.
>Hello, fellow travelers, i am from not!Japan

Done.

Define "Western aesthetic".

Also just fucking make them hail from fantasy Japan, you autistic fuck, there's no solution for your problem that doesn't make you look like a fucking retard in the eyes of others.

You mean Fox-spirits, Raccoon-spirits, faery warriors, Ice Maidens, broadswords, raw foods, priestesses, sorcerers, ascetic monks, and mountain sages? Both the Native Americans and the Icelandic nations had most of these as concepts. They aren't new or unusual.

Yeah, but you should keep in mind that cut-heavy swords like sabres, falchions etc are intended for use against unarmoured or lightly armoured opponents, as would your katana. So if you want a standard setting with plate armour, carrying an anti-armour weapon in addition to the cutting sword should be pretty important.

Or just engage unarmored/lightly armored opponents, i.e. what cavalry equipped with sabers usually does after being done with archery/spear charge, and also civilian life and stuff.

>Races
Denizens of the Feywild. Yuki-onna are Winter Nymphs or Snow Maidens or some other resident of the Winterlands. Tengu, tanuki and kitsune are fey beastfolk.

>Katanas
Longswords.

>Sushi
In the local coastal region, preparations of fresh raw fish and seaweed have become a popular snackfood that's quick to make and cheap to buy (which sushi was before it become "hip").

>Shinto & Miko
Animistic spirit-based religion where female clerics are the norm.

>Onmyouji
Wizards who specialize in the use of scrolls and paper talismans.

>Buddhism/Taoism
Literally just philosophies about how the multiverse fits together and what the purpose of the human soul.

>katanas
>broadswords

didnt the japs used the katana mostly as a backup weapon and status symbol? And mostly used stuff like the yari or naginata in battle?

This. Show some creativity.

Yes

Just admit you're a weeab and do a fucking chinese setting

>kitsune, tanuki, tengu
Fey with animal features and supernatural abilities, Reynard the Fox, children's literature characters etc.
>yuki-onna
Womanly Fey who captivate ronery anons with their beauty, we have plenty
>katanas
Masterwork bastard swords
>sushi
The most expensive tuna is from the Mediterranean anyway, just eat slices of tuna or salmon salted or smoked or slightly cooked with some soft fluffy bread if there's no rice
>miko
Pagan priestesses
>onmyouji
Exorcists, alchemists or hermeticists
>Buddhism
Ancient skeptics
>Shintoism
Paganism f.e. Roman
>Taoism
Stoicism

We don't need weeaboo shit, we already have all we need

Faeries. Duh.

>cultural homogenization

Or make up something new. Imagination doesn't need some kind of traced pedigree. Hell, anything you make up yourself is inherently your own cultural lore.

As the villager walks through the forest, a fox jumps out of the bushes and says "This is our territory, human, you must go no further".

That kind of stuff happens in stories all over the world. Though you mentioned D&D, where a lot of standard myth tropes don't work that well. This is because instead of operating on fantasy logic (where foxes are just able to talk, and turning into a human is a learnable skill like riding a bike), D&D tries to operate on real-world logic then add in fantasy elements which follow separate rules (e.g. there are both real foxes and a race of shapeshifters who love imitating foxes, which is stupid and likely to get accused of magical realm).

>katana - just call it sword, no sense to have one in iron-rich areas
>broadswords
>Katanas - Longswords.
>katanas - Masterwork bastard swords

Seriously, guys? You've never heard of a sabre before? Just about everywhere had curved single-edged swords for officers and nobility - they're still handing them out even now.

Even iaijutsu is nothing unusual, it's just that Japan attached a lot of mystique to it.