Katsushika Hokusai’s Ghosts and Monsters

The name of Katsushika Hokusai is known to the world as one of the foremost master painters of the traditional Japanese art of woodblock print called Ukiyo-e. In his lifetime, Hokusai created over 30,000 unique works of art, including the extremely famous painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa , part of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji .

However, before making that successful late series, Hokusai created his own Hyakumonogatari (literally, “One Hundred Tales”), or rather, portrayed in his distinctive style five of those tragic, grotesque, and often humorous protagonists. traditional ghost stories.

You can learn more about Hokusai’s life with this ebook that you can buy in our store!

These characters are yōkai , “strange and mysterious beings” who “inhabit supernatural Japan.” They “come in all shapes and sizes, from friendly house spirits to ferocious demons,” including the Oyajirome , which literally has one eye on the back of its head, and the Ushi-oni, part bull and part crab with lots of presence to give you nightmares.

Hokusai’s interest tended towards yōkai who were once normal humans: the abandoned wife of a samurai whose spirit became trapped in a lantern, the murdered kabuki actor whose skeletal remains emerged from a swamp to hunt down his killers.

Shortly after Hokusai’s death, Japan opened up to the world, beginning its transformation into a state of hypermodernity. But yōkai stories still have some influence on the Japanese cultural imagination.