Yokai

I’ve not been posting as often as I’d hoped (largely due to illness), but I’m back to full strength, and starting this week will be posting regularly on Tuesdays. In addition to my main posts, I also have plans for some books reviews, and exhibition reviews that I’ll be adding over the next couple of weeks.

Todays post regards Yokai, and to introduce it I’ll look to the words of not a print artist, but Manga artist Mizuki Shigeru. I’m not a big reader of graphic novels but have enjoyed everything that I have read by Mizuki, particularly ‘Showa’ and ‘Onwards Towards Our Nobel Deaths’.

Adrian, Mar 20th 2016

“Yokai as a term encompasses oni, obake, strange phenomenon, monsters, evil spirits of rivers and mountains, demons, goblins, apparitions, shape-changers, magic, ghosts, and mysterious occurrences. Yokai can either be legendary figures from Japanese folklore, or purely fictional creations with little or no history. There are many yokai that come from outside Japan, including strange creatures and phenomena from outer space. Anything that can not readily be understood or explained, anything mysterious and unconfirmed, can be a yokai.”

Mizuki SHIGERU

 

Compared with the major themes of landscapes, portraits of actors, or beautiful women, prints of Yokai are a pretty niche topic.  While they often depict folk stories that I’m not familiar with, I love the whimsy of these prints.

 

Katsushika HOKUSAI: The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji (series One Hundred Ghost Stories) 1831-32

 

Utagawa KUNIYOSHI: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Specter (Story of Utö Yasutaka) c. 1843 – 1847

 

Utagawa KUNIYOSHI: Nissaka 日坂 / Tokaido gojusan-tsui 東海道五十三対 (Fifty-three pairings along the Tokaido Road)   1845 (circa)

Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon: Mount Yoshino Midnight Moon. 1886

 

TsukiokaYOSHITOSHI: The Servant Fudesuke (series One Hundred Ghost Stories from China and Japan). 1865

If you want to read more on the topic check out Zack Davisson’s  wonderful blog Hyakumonogatari .

Modern Day: Yokai

These images are not prints, but I include them to show that Yokai are still a going concern in the 21st Century.

Shigeru MISUKI: Yōkai Daizukai – Hip-Cat. 2004

Takashi MURAKAMI:  500 Arhats. 2012