It’s late and I know some of you have been waiting all day for this, so finally here it is! Of all the yokai I’ve painted, the largest number of them come from Kyushu and West Japan. Up to now, I’ve only done one yokai native to Okinawa — the Kijimunaa — and so I thought it was time to give a little more love to Ryukyu and the southern islands. | これまで九州と西日本の妖怪は沢山描いてきましたが、沖縄の妖怪は一つ（キジムナー）しか描いていませんでした。そこで、今回はさらにもう一つ琉球の妖怪を紹介したいと思います。 Continue reading
Today’s yokai will be familiar to anyone anywhere, regardless of whether you’ve been to Japan or not: the dragon! It’s one of the most iconic images in Asian art — or pretty much any culture anywhere in the world. However, the Japanese dragon has some very unique features that set it apart from dragons in other cultures. Here is the tatsu entry from Night Parade: | 今日の妖怪は日本ではとても有名でどこに行っても誰でも知っているでしょう。世界でもドラゴンはとても有名ですが、日本の龍はとても独創的です。こちらはNight Parade本からの龍です。 Continue reading
Today we kick of A-Yokai-A-Day for the month of October (2012 edition)! I wanted to start with a few well-known yokai, some of which are featured in my book. So today’s yokai is an excerpt from The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, featuring a very common creature found all over Japan: the komainu! If you have ever visit a Shinto shrine or Japan, or even just seen a photo of one, most likely you are familiar with the lion-dog guardian statues, but what exactly are they?… | Today we kick of A-Yokai-A-Day for the month of October (2012 edition)! I wanted to start with a few well-known yokai, some of which are featured in my book. So today’s yokai is an excerpt from The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, featuring a very common creature found all over Japan: the komainu! If you have ever visit a Shinto shrine or Japan, or even just seen a photo of one, most likely you are familiar with the lion-dog guardian statues, but what exactly are they?… Continue reading
Only 2 more days until October! And that means only two more days until yokai! In celebration of Halloween, I will be showcasing Japanese folkloric monsters, known as yokai, on this blog, with illustrations and English descriptions of creatures that are generally not known outside of the Japanese-speaking world. And what’s more, there will be a contest!!
A-Yokai-A-Day began in October of 2009, in celebration of Halloween. I wanted to showcase something purely Japanese, yet also scary, and so when I came across yokai I knew they would be the perfect subject. Of course, back then, I didn’t know how big a door I was opening up — that it would lead to such a big fan reaction, many more years of painting yokai, numerous gallery shows, and the book, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, which was published earlier this year.
This year’s project will feature yokai from Night Parade, as well as some new yokai which have not been featured on this site or in the book before. (In fact, I’m pretty sure some of them have never even been featured in English before!)
I will also be selling giclée prints of each day’s yokai, printed in tradition oban size (the standard size done by the masters of Japanese woodblock prints), so if you like any of the illustrations, you can help support my artwork by buying a print!
And now on to the most exciting part: the contest! At the end of the project, on Halloween, I will be giving away an A1-sized poster from my August gallery show to one lucky yokai fan. Here’s the poster:
Hyakki Yagyou, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
For a chance to win, you only need to do one thing: name ALL of the yokai in that poster! It may sound easy, but it’s much harder than you think! To give you some help, here is a close-up of the yokai in the image so you can see them better:
Close-up; click to embiggen
Here is one more hint: there are 22 yokai in the picture. Also, while most of them are slightly obscured and hard to see, one of them in particular will be very tricky to guess! However, all of them are in my book, and almost all of them have been shown on this site in the past. You can also browse through the photos on my Facebook page to see all of the illustrations from Night Parade (that might help you guess all of them but the very tricky one…). Okay, NO MORE HINTS!
Now you’ve got a month to think about it, search around, Google it, so don’t rush! I’ll post details on how to submit your answers later in October. The lucky winner will be chosen at random out of all the correct answers on October 31st. | １０月です。今年もハロウィーンシーズンがやってきました！
とうとう１０月が始まりました。まだ日本以外ではまだあまり知られていない日本の妖怪をこのブログで紹介していきます。後に大きなお知らせもありますので楽しみにしていてくださいね。
A-Yokai-A-Day（日本語では「今日の妖怪」として紹介しています）は２００９年の１０月にハロウィーンにちなんで始めたのがスタートです。何か日本にちなんだ怖いものを紹介しようとリサーチをした所、妖怪にたどり着きました。この時私は後々こんなに大きなプロジェクトになるとは気がついていませんでした。このプロジェクトを始めてから本当に沢山の妖怪ファンの方々と出会いましたし、展示会もやらせていただいたりして妖怪の本The Night Parade of One Hundred Demonsを出版する事までできました。
今年の妖怪達は、この「Night Parade」本からのものと、その他にもさらに新しい妖怪を紹介したいと思います。そしてさらに、紹介した妖怪絵の大判サイズのプリントも購入できるようにいたしますので、もし私の絵が気に入っていただけたら私の画家活動のサポートのためにもご協力よろしくお願いします。
今回のプロジェクトの終盤、ハロウィーンの日にコンテストをします！そしてこのコンテストに勝った方には、８月の展示会でおなじみのA1サイズのポスターをプレゼントします！
Hyakki Yagyou, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
勝者の条件は一つだけ。このポスターに描かれている妖怪全て答えるだけです！簡単なように思われるかもしれませんが、実はとっても難しいですよ！
ちょっとヒントを出しましょう。下のイメージはクローズアップしたものです。これでもうちょっと良く見えますね。
Close-up; click to embiggen
ではここでもう一つヒントです。ここには２２の妖怪が描かれています。そしてほとんどの妖怪はちょっと不明瞭に描かれているのでちょっとわかりにくいですが、中でも一つは特にひっかけ問題になっています！でも、全ての妖怪は私の本の中にいますし、ほとんどは過去にこのブログでも紹介していますよ。
私のフェイスブックページでも本の妖怪ができいますので、これもヒントになるかと思います。
ではここでヒントは終わりです！
締め切りまで一カ月間考えたり調べたりする期間がありますのでじっくり考えてみて下さいね。
期限が迫ってきたら１０月末にどうやって応募するかをお知らせします。幸運な
勝者は応募者の中から抽選の末１０月３１日に発表いたします。
If you happen to be in Fukui this month, you may have heard about the Fukui Yume Art festival. It’s basically a huge city-wide celebration of art featuring local artists and utilizing empty spaces around the city to promote art. It’s an awesome idea, and I was really happy to be invited to participate this year. You can see the schedule below. ↓
Yume Art Schedule; more info here
I’m showing yokai again, though these are not yokai from Night Parade — these are yokai from my A-Yokai-A-Day project on this blog. They are all acryllic and gouache paintings on Japanese shikishi. I was lucky to get a great spot in the middle of the business district in front of the train station and next to McDonald’s, and the owners of the space have said that it has been packed every day! Here you can see some of the paintings being shown:
Intro Panel
Center #1
Wall #1
Wall #2
If you’re in Fukui, my yokai will be showing for a few more days, so definitely go see them if you have the chance! The originals look much nicer in person than on a website. And make sure you go see some of the other great artists. The curators of the program selected a huge range of different styles of art, so there is sure to be something there for everyone to enjoy!
福井にいらっしゃる方だったら聞いたことがあると思うのですが、現在「フクイ夢アート2012」が開催されています。
地元のアーティスト達による展示が福井駅前で、商店街まで使って大規模に行われているのです。今年、私はこのイベントに招待をしていただいた事をとても嬉しく思っています。次のイメージでスケジュールを見る事が出来ます。
フクイ夢アートスケジュールは ここをクリック
私は今回の展示でも再び妖怪を展示しています。しかし今回展示してある妖怪達は本の「百鬼夜行」からではなく、 A-Yokai-A-Day（一日一枚妖怪）プロジェクトでの妖怪達です。展示品は全て色紙でアクリルとグワッシュ絵になっています。
私は今回とても良い場所を提供して頂き、見つけやすい場所に展示をしてあります。場所は福井鉄道線路沿いにあるマクドナルドの隣にある「まんなかプラザ」になります。 展示場所の方によると、、毎日沢山の方々にご来場いただいているそうです。
もし福井にいらっしゃいましたら、是非私の妖怪に会いに行ってみて下さい。展示期間は残り少なくなっています（10月3日まで）！プリントではない本物の手書き絵の妖怪の質感を感じてみて下さいね。
そして、他に展示されているアーティスト達の作品も是非ご覧ください。今回のプログラムで展示されているアーティストの作風はとても幅広く、誰もが楽しめる内容になっていると思いますよ。
Night Parade fans who stop into their local Liquor World Hana might be surprised to see a particular new brand of sake:
What’s that lined up there??
Yokai sake?!
That’s right! Yokai-themed sake! This is a special limited edition Koshi no Taka sake brewed by Ito Sake Brewery in Fukui prefecture. It’s a local brand, and very delicious! You may be familiar with this yokai from my blog or my book — this is a kawauso, a Japanese river otter. Kawauso was chosen for the label not just because it’s cute, but also because they are known for dressing up as humans and sneaking into sake stores to try to buy alcohol. They don’t understand the concept of money and often try to pay with dead leaves or sticks, and when the shopkeeper questions them, they squeak or just mimic his words, hoping he won’t see through their disguise.
Unfortunately these can’t be shipped to the US, because this is a fresh sake and needs to remain chilled and be drunk soon. However, other bottles will be making their debut soon, and those ones may possibly be available for shipment overseas. For any of you living in or visiting Fukui prefecture, though, hurry up and check your local Liquor World Hana! These are a limited edition and will probably vanish faster than you can say “kawauso!” |
百鬼夜行ファンの方はリカーワールド華(福井県）に行くとおもしろいものを見つけられますよ！新しいお酒が出ました！
それ何？？
妖怪酒？！
そうです。妖怪がラベルになって、福井県にある伊藤酒造 Koshi no Taka から発売されたのです！後味がさわやかなおいしいお酒ですよ。
この妖怪、ブログや本でおなじみなので見た事あると思われると思います。これは獺 kawauso です。
獺が選ばれたのは、かわいいからだけではなく、獺にまつわる話にも関係があります。獺は酒が大好きなので度々人間の姿になって酒を買いに行きます。しかし彼らは「お金」というものを知らないので、枯葉や棒などで酒を買いに行こうとするそうです。そして酒屋の主人が質問をすると、彼らはその返事を用意していないため変な声を出してしまったり、ただオウム返しにしてしまうために正体がばれてしまうというものです。
残念な事にこのお酒はアメリカでは買えません。冷蔵保存が必要で、鮮度を保つ必要があるからです。しかし、いづれ東京の店からインターネット販売されるかもしれませんので、そうなったら買う事ができそうですよ。
もし福井にお住まいでしたら、是非リカーワールド華に行ってみて下さい。つい先日売り出されたばかりですが、数量限定販売なので、あっという間になくなってしまう可能性もあります。お早めにどうぞ！
The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons show opened up last Friday, and it’s been a great success so far. Everyone’s reactions have been very interesting — from kids insisting that they aren’t scared while gritting their teeth and refusing to look anywhere but at the floor, to adults doing pretty much the same thing. I’m really enjoying meeting fans and hearing what they have to say about the book. One family brought in their tattered copy for me to sign. Their kids love it so much they take it everywhere they go, and it looked like it could have been 20 years old instead of only a couple of months.
Here are a couple of articles about the show. The first one is from Urala, Fukui prefecture’s monthly magazine. They got my website address wrong (.com instead of .net), but oh well. The article looks nice anyway, and it’s an honor to be in Urala:
Urala, August 2012
On the first day of the show, a reporter who really loves yokai came from the Fukui Shinbun to take some photos and write an article. He was squirming and making faces while reading each yokai description, and letting out yelps and shouts. But he stayed for an hour and came back again later in the day. He said really enjoyed the show, and he wrote a great article to go with it:
Fukui Shinbun, July 28, 2012
If you haven’t come to the show yet, please do! I’ll be there every weekend and sporadically throughout the week until August 16th! | 福井の情報誌URALAさんでも紹介されました！
Urala, August 2012
福井新聞で「百鬼夜行展」の紹介をしてもらえました！
Fukui Shinbun, July 28, 2012