Specters, Ghosts & Sorcerers in Woodblock Painting

Throughout history, Eastern and Western art took very different paths and evolved in very unique and distinctive ways. Some of the most renown art pieces in Japan are carved in Ukiyo-e - woodblock painting, in which the art is drawn on slabs of wood, chiseled out, and pressed onto parchment using different color applications, creating vibrant colors in a way that certainly inspired current trends in graphic design. And though subject matter varied, Tokyo's Ukiyo-e Museum is currently doing a special exhibition on fantastic monsters and ghosts and demons as they appear in historical paintings.
 It's fascinating and inspiring all at once, but I can't walk you through the whole thing and tell you about every single story, as even I don't know them so well myself. But here are my three favorites, in no particular order.


1 - GAMA SENNIN INSTRUCTS YOSHIKADO AND TAKIYASHA by Kuniyoshi 

 In this amazing painting, Taira no Yoshikado and Takiyasha are instructed by the spirit of a 3000 year old toad, named Gama Sennin, on how to invoke sorcery. He spits a jet of mist with his breath, and the illusion of a beautiful woman appears. They are in front of a cavern made from the mouth of an enormous toad, with the statues of hundreds of other toads standing vigil all around them.

2 - KIDOMARU LEARNING MAGIC FROM THE TENGU by Kuniyoshi

 In this one, the bandit sorcerer Kidomaru is instructed by the Tengu (the four birdlike creatures at the bottom) on how to use sorcery. In his training, he plunges a blade into the head of a giant python. What he learned would later come of use to him in his battle against Yasuke, in which he would summon a giant poisonous snake to make battle with Yasuuke's heavenly eagle. I absolutely love how Kidomaru's body seems to be merging with magical smoke.
It's also important to distinguish the two types of Tengu. I didn't know this before, but the commonly depicted long-nose Tengu is only one of the two types. The second type, Crow-Tengu, like the ones shown on this picture, are the less common second type.







3 - TAKIYASHA THE WITCH AND THE SKELETON SPECTER by Kuniyoshi

Oh come on, this is seriously bad-ass. In real life history, Takiyasha was a princess whose father was slain when he established a rebellion. His palace in Soma was utterly destroyed, but his daughter Takiyasha remained there. In the legend, when a government official, Oya no Mitsukuni comes looking for surviving conspirators in the ruined castle, he finds the former princess, who, reading incantations from a scroll, summons from a dark void a colossal skeleton to kill the trespassers. It's a really well known work of art in Japan.

Yes, I know I haven't shown a very great diversity in choice of artist at all. But Utagawa Kuniyoshi's pieces really outshone the others in my eyes, even before discovering that all pieces were by him. I feel like I've discovered a new-found liking in Japanese mythology thanks to the exhibition. It's on until the end of September, by the way, in Harajuku, so check it out!