Here’s a special holiday treat for you: a bonus yokai!

This is Byakko, the white tiger. It’s got a lot of cultural significance in Chinese astrology (which was imported to Japan from China, like many things). I’m not familiar with any particular stories or myths about Byakko, other than that it represents the west in Chinese astrology.

This picture will be our New Year’s card, or nengajo. It seemed a sin, being an artist, to just buy ordinary New Year’s card, particularly because nengajo are kind of the equivalent of the “Christmas letter” which many families in the US send. They’re not as long, being a postcard rather than many sheets of printed out paper on corny stationery, but they often have photos of the kids or the family, updates, and things like that. So ours will be entirely void of valuable information and instead just be a giant white tiger. Oh yeah, and 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which is why I picked Byakko. So there you go.

Byakko

ハッピーニューイヤー！

今月、もう一枚妖怪の絵を描きました。来年は寅年なので、白虎を描きました。

皆さん、良いお年を迎えて下さい！

来年の一月に、日本の神様の絵を描く予定です。

来年もよろしくお願いします。