Yesterday somebody asked me if I had ever painted an “Aka-Fuji” — a red Mt. Fuji. I’ve only seen the mountain 3 or 4 times, and none of them were during sunset, so I never had the chance. But I looked it up and there are a number of gorgeous paintings of Mt. Fuji in red. As red is such an awesome fall color, and I was sort of in an ukiyo-e mood today, I decided to have a little fun with today’s yokai. I mixed the red, fall colors with a famous ukiyo-e print of Mt. Fuji and some contemporary Tokyo goth-loli style. Because yokai deserve to have trends too, right?

Hari-onago

Hari-onago, also known as Hari-onna, is “the hooked woman.” You may remember a smaller version of her from last year’s Hyakki Yako panels, but she’s such a vicious yokai I couldn’t leave her without giving her a painting of her own. Her story comes all the way from Ehime prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It is said that she wanders the island, searching for victims. When she sees a young man that she likes, she waits around trying to catch his attention. If she catches his eye, she will laugh, and if the poor man laughs back at her, she will lash at him with her long, barbed strands of hair and rip him to pieces. Ouch!

Hari-onago