For yokai fans, one of the really fun Japanese holidays is Setsubun. I’ve covered this on my blog a few times before so there’s not much more to say about it this time around. But I did want to share some of the yokai that I completed during January:

Hososhi

Firstly, the hososhi, which I covered on this blog during A-Yokai-A-Day, but now have a painted version. Of course, with Setsubun coming up, this yokai is more appropriately timed than ever!

Basho no sei

Byobu nozoki

Enenra

All of the yokai for The Book of the Hakutaku are now painted, which is an exciting milestone. There is still a lot of layout and editing work to do, so the book is still a ways away, but it gets closer and closer to finished each day. There’s still time to pre-order it on Backerkit, and have your name included in the book as an early supporter!

In other news, I was also really pleased to see on 世界!ニッポン行きたい that one of the people featured was a young Hungarian girl whose dream to visit Japan was because of her love for yokai! She is writing about yokai for her graduation thesis, it seems. And I was extra honored that she presented one of my illustrations as part of her inspiration. Good luck メルセデス, I hope you get to visit Japan!