1/2/2024 0 Comments World of demons art![]() With a resolute determination, Mizuki sought to bring back yokai into the popular consciousness as they were centuries ago. Dubbed the ‘yokai professor’, Shigeru grew up listening to yokai stories during a time when folklore was being effectively wiped out by modernity and warped for propaganda purposes. We can’t talk about the hyakki yagyou and yokai in the modern art world without discussing Mizuki Sigeru (水木しげる). All of them are yokai, and Shigeru’s portrayal of them was an immense success. The main protagonist, Kitaro, has an eyeball for a father and various creatures and objects as friends. Mizuki Shigeru’s phenomenal Gegege no Kitaro manga spawned movies, anime, games, and books. Intro to opening of anime Gegege no Kitaro (2018). While many, like Toriyama Sekien, isolated the yokai and gave them individual attention, some artists used the hyakki yagyou motif as a metaphor to explore other themes. The hyakki yagyou and its evolution into the hyaku monogatari game was a treasure trove of inspiration for artists in Japan. Nekomata also mimic human behaviors, like walking upright and wearing clothes, even going so far as to adopt a human guise to infiltrate the human world. They can also summon huge fireballs capable of destroying homes and villages. Nekomata are able to raise the dead and use their dark magic to control people to do their bidding. Nekomata have fierce tempers and have no qualms messing around with humans. It marks this evolution with a split tail. When an ordinary cat, usually a very large and powerful one, reaches a certain age, it transforms into a yokai. The nekomata looks harmless at first glance, until you notice it has not one but two tails. Given the mysterious and elusive nature of the cat, it’s no wonder that some of the more popular yokai appear as cats. This depiction of the feisty nekomata appears in Toriyama Sekien’s encyclopedia Gazu Hyakki Yagyou. Here’s a list of some of the more notable yokai that appear in the hyakki yagyou. ![]() Its simple woodblock prints made mass production possible, and the book’s immense popularity prompted Toriyama to publish three more yokai encyclopedias. Scholar and artist Toriyama Sekien (鳥山石燕) took it upon himself to catalog all the yokai and oni in the hyakki yagyou, publishing the Gazu Hyakki Yagyou (画図百鬼夜行) in 1776. Ghosts (幽霊 yurei), monsters or goblins (化け物 bakemono), and possessed objects (付喪神 tsukumogami) also appear. While hyakki translates as “one hundred demons” the parade isn’t just demons. ![]() ![]() The Japanese use “hyaku” to denote any large number, so the total number of facetious demons involved could range into the hundreds. Notable Night Paradersĭespite the literal meaning of hyakki as “one hundred demons,” there really aren’t exactly one hundred demons in the parade. As new yokai ran amok through the people’s imaginations, artists began adding them to their versions of the hyakki yagyou, sometimes with startling effect. This game was immensely popular, so much so that it led to a shift in the art scene towards depicting the various yokai born from these stories in ukiyo-e art. As a result, the overall mood grew gloomy and fearful. As the evening progressed, they extinguished more candles. After finishing a story, they extinguished one candle. People gathered at night, lit one hundred candles, and took turns telling ghost stories. Experts believe this red sphere of light either symbolizes the rising sun or the result of a Buddhist chant meant to dispel the parade.ĭuring the Edo period, the hyakki yagyou found a new home in an oral storytelling game known as hyaku monogatari (百物語). Two interpretations offer an explanation for the presence of this red sphere of light. Some emaki depict a glowing reddish sphere. However, the common format was a large number of various yokai and demons frolicking from one end of the scroll to the other. Some of the demons and spirits changed depending on the artist. The hyakki yagyou paraded into the Japanese art scene around the Heian period in the form of the picture scroll, called emaki (絵巻). Notice the rising sun pattern on the fan brandished by the yokai on the far left, perhaps an allusion to the belief that only the first light of day is powerful enough to send the yokai back to the darkness. The Hyakki: Parading into the Japanese Art World Various yokai and oni frolic in this print by Kawanabe Kyosai.
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