bsc \/\/ japanese ghosts and my brown underpants
The Japanese have a very distinct tradition of the supernatural; it is a spectral world that holds no prisoners. Young, old, rich, poor, man, woman, upper class, lower class, if you were Japanese, you could potentially be a victim of some sort of ghoulish haunting. And their ghosts did NOT look like sweet harmless Casper, they looked more like a crazy-three-eyed-gumby-necked-freak. Who also happens to have four similarly terrifying looking friends and is trying to lick you.
Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, (aka Yoshitoshi Taisho) is a master of the supernatural genres and the ukiyo-e wood block print. This medium roughly translates to “pictures from the floating world” and were colorfully massed produced depictions of pleasurable motifs such as landscapes or geisha performing. They were escapist pictures with accompanying text sold for a small amount to people on the streets. One of my personal favorites depicts the mortal clash between samurai and freakishly creepy spider demon.
by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka. Spiders this large are automatically classified as freakishly creepy demons.
This picture, to a 19th century Japanese, is poop-your-daytime-robe scary. Also to me. Except I’m not wearing a daytime robe. I have on my mawashi. And I pooped in it. Cause this spider demon gives me the creeps. He’s got commas for eyes!
The story here is that Minamoto (non-arachnid pictured above) is delirious with fever and envisions this spider coming to attack him. The fever actually breaks when he defeats the monstrous beast in his head. Minamoto Yorimitsu was a very famous warrior figure 10th century Japan. This motif would be instantly readable to both learned and common Japanese in the 19th century. Ghosts in Japan are the universal equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you are a famous warrior, you can still be plagued by them. Combined with the populist method that this art was distributed, this was a promising message of equality for the lower classes of pre-Modern Japan.
Likewise, I had a dream once where there was a turnip-head looking ghost outside my window and I tried to scream and no one could hear and then I turned around and the door to my room wasn’t a door but it was a cave opening and it looked like an evil ghost lair and I turned back around and the turnip-head looking ghost was right there in front of me and BOOM; it ate my face with its gooey spectral turnip aura. Not sure how this is a promising message to the lower classes of pre-Modern Japan, but point being, ghosts are legit and there is no need to even think about F-ing with them.
Check out the aristocrat/warrior below from the film Kwaidan (1964). Here, the man in the video left his first wife to marry up, the bastard. So the social climbing horseback archer is haunted by the ghost of his former wife:
The ghostly woman who haunts a former lover for maltreatment is a common theme. Showcased alongside a dead Japanese military art form is the music of Takemitsu Toru. You’ll notice the sounds are all organic (horse hooves, wood breaking) until the ghost looms in the head of the warrior. Then the traditional Japanese instruments are littered in with the modern composition of anxious percussions. We can tell the heightened tension he is feeling. Music can bring about ghosts.
Finally, a friend of the Bleeps, the Sweeps, and the Creeps, reminds us that ghosts, while scary, are still entertainment and can be light-hearted fun. Okada Shu, a Japanese artist and illustrator working in New York City made this, inspired by this week’s theme. Singing in the ghostly rain. Visit her website!
"You're nothing but a shadow on film... just a shadow. You're not flesh and blood." -Singin' in the Rain (1952)
For more about Japanese ghosts and demons check out Stephen Addiss’ book.
Tune in next week for topics including but not limited to: Guns — BUCK BUCK BUCK! — sorry. Got distracted.
love shu’s picture. support.
Shu is a wonderful artist
Pearls before THIS swine.
As a friend of chicken flava, I think it important to note that, although I should have known better, I thought the title of this post referenced underpants that were originally brown, giving him the benefit of the doubt. To my five-year-old delight, this was actually a poop joke. And, indeed, I laughed a little out loud when I read the only two poop jokes contained in the body of the post. (A professor in one of my grad school classes mentioned that her five-year-old son thinks poop is the funniest joke in the world, like all kids his age. And I turned to the person next to me and said, “I also think poop jokes are funny.” That person did not laugh. They apparently do not share my sentiments.)
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