Night Parade Gallery Show at Space Oichi | 百鬼夜行@スペースオイチ

日本語版はこちらです。

In Japan, summer is the season for scary things (unlike in the US, when horror revolves around late fall and Halloween). Summer is when the new scary movies come out, when ghost stories are told, and when creatures from beyond are said to return to our world. The idea is that being scared chills your body and helps you beat the summer heat, but this also has more ancient roots going back thousands of years — the same roots that lead to the superstitions of the dead returning to our world and the boundaries of the spirit world being weaker during the Obon holiday.

As such, summer is the perfect time to talk about yokai! And in the spirit of keeping everyone cool, I’m having a gallery show featuring illustrations from The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons next month in Fukui City.

The show will feature a broad range of yokai, from the funny and cute, to the weird and creepy, to the downright terrifying. If you can make it to Fukui city this summer, definitely come check it out!

Hyakki Yagyou poster

Hyakki Yagyou, 7/26-8/16 @ Space Oichi

The full dates of the show are July 27 until August 16, 11 am to 7:30 pm. The location is Space Oichi, Apple Building 2F, right behind Seibu and above Seatle’s Best Coffee and Theatre Cinque. Hope to see you there! | 日本では、夏といえば何か怖いホラーの季節のイメージがあります。(アメリカではハロウィーンの時期ということで遅めの秋がホラーシーズンですからちょっと違いますね)夏にには毎年新作のホラー映画がでてきて、怪談話もあちこちで聞かれるようになります。死者が蘇る時期でもありますね。夏の暑さ対策にはもってこいです!

と、言うことで・・・夏です!妖怪の季節がやってきました!涼しくなりたい皆さんに朗報です。私の本「The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons」の妖怪たちの展示がスペースおいちさんで開催されます。

Hyakki Yagyou poster

Hyakki Yagyou, 7/26-8/16 @ Space Oichi

展示は7月27日から8月16日まで、時間はAM11時~PM7時30分までです。フェニックス祭りをはさんで展示が行われますので、お祭りに来られた際には是非立ち寄って見てください!

場所は福井市中央1-17-1アップルビル2Fです。妖怪たちがあなたを待っていますよ!

Night Parade in the News | 福井新聞で「The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons」

Today the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons appeared in the Fukui Shinbun!

5/23 Fukui Shinbun

the article

Translation:

Echizen’s resident American, illustrator Matthew Meyer (29), has published a book of 100 Japanese yokai with English descriptions. The title, “The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons” means “Hyakki Yagyou” in Japanese. He started work in January of 2011, and completed the illustrations, book layout, translations, etc. in about 1 year and 2 months. It includes 100 yokai from famous places around Japan, each with its own illustration and explanation of its history. Our town’s beloved Mt. Hino is also featured among the illustrations. Mr. Meyer first came to Japan as a college student, and spent a month-long homestay in Kanazawa. He grew to love Japanese art. Later moved to Echizen city and married a local girl in 2009. After May, he will accompany his wife to the US for 2 years while she studies at a university in Pennsylvania. “I worked for many days and months, but completing the book was very fun,” says Mr. Meyer. “Next I want to illustrate and publish a book with 100 famous views of Philadelphia.” The yokai book can be purchased at Mr. Meyer’s website.

| 今日、福井新聞でこの記事が出ました!

5/23 福井新聞

マットマイヤーとThe Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

Now Available: The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons | The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (百鬼夜行)発売中!

My book, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, is now available to order!

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (cover)

You can order your paperback copy directly from CreateSpace, or from Amazon.com. The digital version will also be is also available on Amazon.com within a few days! Check your local brick-and-mortar bookstores too!

Yokai – monsters from Japanese folklore – are some of the zaniest and wildest things ever imagined up. From the mists of Japanese prehistory, through the medieval ages, up to today, the bestiary of Japanese folklore contains a wide range of monsters. There are women with extra mouths in the backs of their heads, water goblins whose favorite food is human anus, elephant-dragons which feed solely on bad dreams, dead baby zombies, talking foxes, fire-breathing chickens, animated blobs of rotten flesh that run about the streets at night…

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is a massive illustrated bestiary choc full of yokai. It features over one hundred traditional Japanese monsters, each one beautifully illustrated in full color by yokai artist Matthew Meyer. Each yokai is described in detail, including origins, habitat, diet, and legend, based on translations from centuries-old Japanese texts.

Read this book, and the next time you watch an anime or a Godzilla movie, you’ll be able to recognize their folkloric ancestors dating back centuries. You’ll find out about all of the strange mythical animals you can see at temples and shrines, on beer can labels, and even on Japanese money. Meet the predecessors to Pokemon, Power Rangers, scary J-horror girls, and all of the strange creatures that pop up in Japanese video games. Night Parade will turn anyone with a passing interest in Japanese folklore into a full-blown yokai expert!

The book is 224 pages, with over one hundred full-color paintings. Inside the book you will find all of the following yokai: Abura-sumashi, Aka-name, Aka-shita, Ame-onna, Ao-andon, Ao-nyōbō, Ao-sagi-bi, Azuki-arai, Azuki-babā, Azuki-hakari, Bake-kujira, Bake-neko, Bake-zōri, Baku, Basan, Betobeto-san, Biwa-bokuboku, Chōchin-obake, Chōpirako, Dai-tengu, Doro-ta-bō, Funa-yūrei, Futa-kuchi-onna, Garappa, Gasha-dokuro, Hari-onago, Hito-dama, Hitotsu-me-kozō, Hitotsu-me-nyūdō, Hone-onna, Hō-ō, Hyakki Yagyō, Hyakume, Hyōsube, Iso-onna, Isonade, Itachi, Ittan-momen, Jatai, Jorō-gumo, Jubokko, Kage-onna, Kama-itachi, Kami-kiri, Kappa, Karakasa-kozō, Katawa-guruma, Kawauso, Kerakera-onna, Keukegen, Kijimunā, Kijo, Kirin, Kitsune, Kitsune-bi, Ko-dama, Komainu, Koromo-dako, Kosode-no-te, Kotengu, Koto-furunushi, Kuchi-sake-onna, Kyōrinrin, Mikoshi-nyūdō, Mokumoku-ren, Mujina, Neko-mata, Ningyo, Noppera-bō, Nozuchi, Nuke-kubi, Nuppeppō, Nurarihyon, Nure-onago, Nure-onna, Nuri-botoke, Ohaguro-bettari, Oni, Oni-bi, Onryō, Ō-nyūdō, Otoroshi, Reiki, Rokuro-kubi, Seto-taishō, Shami-chōrō, Shiro-uneri, Shōjō, Shōkera, Suzuri-no-tamashii, Taka-nyūdō, Taka-onna, Tanuki, Tatsu, Tsuchi-gumo, Tsurube-otoshi, Ubume, Umi-bōzu, Ushi-oni, Usu-tsuki-warashi, Uwan, Waira, Yama-uba, Yamabiko, Yamawaro, Yuki-onna, Yūrei, and Zashiki-warashi. Each yokai has a detailed description based on translations of documents hundreds of years old, and an illustration based on classical descriptions, woodblock prints, and paintings from throughout Japanese history.

You won’t find any other book on yokai with this many monsters in it; let alone this many color illustrations! Here’s a few preview pages from the book so you can get a feel for what the whole thing looks like:

Night Parade - Map of Japan

Night Parade - Kappa

Night Parade - Hou-ou

Night Parade - Out at Sea |

私の本、The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (百鬼夜行)が遂に発売されました!

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (cover)

本は Amazon.co.jpから直接オーダーすることができるようになりました!

妖怪は、古来から日本で言い伝えられてきたとても不可思議な生き物であり、その種類は大変幅広いものであります。例えば口が頭の後ろについている女性や、人間の肛門が好物のwater goblins:水のゴブリン(河童を表現しています),悪い夢のみを食べる、象―ドラゴン(獏を表現しています)。また、死んだ体のゾンビや話ができるキツネ、火の息を吐く鶏に、道を行ったり来たりする生きている腐った肉塊などもいるのです。

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (百鬼夜行)」には大変多くの妖怪が載っています!100種類もの日本の妖怪を、一つずつ丁寧に描きました。全てフルカラーで、全ての妖怪についての詳細な英語の説明もついています(古い文献や民話を翻訳しています)。

この本を読んだ後にゴジラや日本のアニメなどを見ると、それらのキャラクターのベースに妖怪がいるということに気が付けるかも。。。もしくは、神社、お寺、ビール缶や日本のお札などでみかけるちょっと不思議な動物達についても何なのか分かることができますよ。この本を読むと、日本の妖怪のエキスパートになれますよ!

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (百鬼夜行)」は、100以上のフルカラーイラストが掲載された224ページの本です。本の中であなたは以下の妖怪を見つけることができますよ!

河童・ガラッパ・兵主部・麒麟・鳳凰・龍・獏・狛犬・野槌・鬼火・人魂・木霊・山彦・キジムナー・濡女子・絡新婦・土蜘蛛・青鷺火・鼬・鎌鼬・波山・山童・小豆洗い・小豆はかり・小豆婆・輪入道・片車輪・鬼・鬼女・霊鬼・樹木子・釣瓶落とし・がしゃどくろ・山姥・小天狗・大天狗・大入道・一つ目入道・見越入道・高入道・油すまし・雪女・猩々・牛鬼・濡女・磯女・船幽霊・人魚・磯撫で・衣蛸・海坊主・化鯨・滑瓢・お歯黒べったり・轆轤首・抜け首・二口女・針女子・口裂け女・骨女・倩兮女・高女・雨女・べとべとさん・泥田坊・赤舌・おとろし・わいら・うわん・百目・ぬっぺっぽう・一つ目小僧・姑獲鳥・幽霊・怨霊・獺・野箆坊・貉・狸・狐・狐火・化け猫・猫又・精螻蛄・青女房・影女・塗佛・座敷童子・チョウピラコ・臼搗童子・垢嘗・毛羽毛現・髪切り・瀬戸大将・白溶裔・化け草履・唐傘小僧・目目連・提灯お化け・経凛々・硯の魂・三味長老・琴古主・琵琶牧々・一反木綿・小袖の手・蛇帯・青行燈・百鬼夜行

これら全てそれぞれの妖怪について、100年以上前の文献や伝承をもとに説明してあります。そしてそれぞれの妖怪たちのイラストもまた、鳥山石燕の画図百鬼夜行などの古いイラストや、その他の浮世絵師による版画などを参考して描いています。

これほどまでに多くの妖怪について知ることのできる本は他では見つけることができません!こちらに、最初の数ページを本から紹介します。この本を通じて、妖怪の世界を是非体感してみてください!

Night Parade - Map of Japan

Night Parade - Kappa

Night Parade - Hou-ou

Night Parade - Out at Sea

Ecchan #12 (The Final One)

March’s Ecchan manga marks the last in the series. It was a fun series, and I will miss doing it; not only for being fun to do, but also because I think it was a great help for foreign residents who otherwise have to deal with the most draconian garbage laws on planet Earth without much of an explanation. Hopefully some day Ecchan will continue.

An interesting thing happened today as well — just before writing this update, a stork just like Ecchan flew past my window! March is when they migrate back to Japan from China, and considering there are only a few hundred or so in all of Japan, this was a great sighting for me and for my town! The storks are back in Echizen for the summer!

Ecchan #12

Ecchan #12

Panel 1:「この金属製のふたは、何ごみなの?」
What kind of trash is this metal cap?
Panel 2:「金属製なら『燃やせないごみ』」
If it’s a metal cap, it’s non-burnable trash!
Panel 3:「プラスチック製なら、ほとんどが『プラごみ※』だよ。」
If it’s made of plastic, usually it will be puragomi.
Panel 4:「プラごみは資源として再利用されるごみの一つだから、汚れていないことが条件だよ!」
Puragomi is one kind of recyclable trash, so make sure it is not dirty when you throw it out!

All of the Ecchan comics can be viewed in Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and English at the Echizen International Association’s website: http://www.e-i-a.jp/en/help/garbage/ |  

Ecchan #11

February’s Ecchan is the second to last comic in the series. Next month will be the final one.

I mentioned before how each of these monthly comics is accompanied by a page of text detailing the rules in depth for foreigners to correctly separate their trash. Well, now you can see all of the comics with their full descriptions in Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and English on the newly-redesigned Echizen International Association website. You can find all of the comics here: http://www.e-i-a.jp/en/help/garbage/

Ecchan #11

Ecchan #11

Panel 1: ビンや缶は、全部『資源ごみ』の日に捨てればいいの?
Can I throw out all my glass bottles and cans on recycling day?
Panel 2: 違うよ。『資源ごみ』と『燃やせないごみ』に分かれる。 | え!?どうやって?
No. They are split up into recyclable and non-burnable trash. | What?! How do you know which?
Panel 3: ポイントは、飲食物が入っていたかどうか! | たとえば、ジャムのビンは『資源ごみ』で、化粧品のビンは『燃やせないごみ』だよ!
The main point is whether food was contained in them or not. | For example, a jar of jam would be recyclable, while a makeup jar would be non-burnable trash!

  |  

Ecchan #10

Ecchan #10 is out! This is the January 2012 issue.

There’s not much more to say… Night Parade has been keeping me too busy to post much. I’m sure many of you are waiting for an update on the book, so I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give it a decent post in a while. Expect the big announcement on that pretty soon though!

Ecchan #10

Ecchan #10

Panel 1: スプレー缶を捨てるときは、必ず穴を開けないといけないよ。
When you throw away spray cans, you must poke a hole into them.
Panel 2: 他のゴミに混ざっていると、ゴミを回収して運ぶとき、とても危ないんだ!
If you mix them up with other types of trash, when the trash is collected it can be very dangerous!
Panel 3: こわい!じゃあ、スプレー缶は、いつ、どこに捨てればいいの?
That’s scary! So, when and where should I throw spray cans away?
Panel 4: 町内で決まっている『資源ごみの日』に、ゴミステーションで分別して出すよ。
Take it to your trash station on the designated day and throw it in the designated bin!

Ecchan #9

Christmas Ecchan

Happy New Year! I meant to upload this post on Christmas, but the end of December flew by me so quickly that it was January before I even knew it! I’m happy to say that The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is almost finished, and will be published very soon — hopefully within a month. In the meantime, here is last month’s Ecchan comic, and a Santa Ecchan to celebrate the holiday season. A little late, but better late than never!

I did find out recently that Ecchan will not be renewed next year. That’s a big disappointment, as I really enjoyed making these. There will still be three more comics (up through March) in this series, but that will be the end of the series, unless it ever gets renewed some time in the future. It’s a little puzzling to me, as city hall has spent so much time, money, and energy trying to reinvent Echizen this year as a) a hot spot for storks, and b) an ecologically restored, clean and green town. Hopefully this just means a change of direction, and not that the move to promote ecology and wildlife was just a one-year fad… but it’s hard to tell with politicians and bureaucrats.

Anyway, on to December’s comic:

Ecchan #9

Panel 1:「プラごみ*はプラスチックとして再利用されるよ。」
“‘Puragomi’ is recycled as plastic.”

Panel 2:「汚れていたら、水でさっと汚れを流そう!」「え!?ゴミなのにどうして洗うの?」
“If it’s dirty, wash it out with water!”  “Huh!? Even though it’s trash, I have to wash it?”

Panel 3:「汚れがあるとリサイクルできないないんだ。」
“That’s because it can’t be recycled if it is dirty.”

Panel 4:「資源を大切にするために、私たちも協力しなくちゃね!」
“We all have to work together to conserve resources!”