Greetings yokai fans!

Here is the trio of infectious yokai that I missed from last month. There’s not really a theme to this set; I chose them because I really liked the way they all looked. The Harikikigaki has 63 infections total, and some of them have larval and adult stages, so there was a lot to choose from. I would have regretted it if I didn’t include these funny looking critters.

I’m also excited to put up another Koshin-related bug (the gyochu). There are a few Koshin-related yokai up on the website already (Shokera and Sanshi), and I wrote a little bit about the religion in both books. I’m glad that this next book will also have a Koshin-related yokai. It’s a cool religion that doesn’t really exist anymore. It died out in the 19th century as Japan modernized.

Anyway, here they are:

Mimimushi http://yokai.com/mimimushi/

Gyochu http://yokai.com/gyouchuu/

Kitai http://yokai.com/kitai/

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Greetings yokai fans!

Today I bring you the kenmun, a yokai from southern Japan which is a kappa/kijimunaa hybrid, with its own strange little twist.

Also, check out the attachment to this post. I think I mentioned last month that the reason I wanted to do this guy was because I found a bottle of “yokai shochu” in the discount liquor bin. So I attached a photo of the liquor, which is called “Ryugu” (i.e. the name of the Dragon king’s palace on the ocean floor) and features a kenmun on the label.

I hope everyone has received their handmade postcards by now. I sent out February’s printed postcards today, and I’m not sure how long it takes to arrive from Japan, but I hope you’ll be getting them quickly! I mistakenly ordered extra large postcards this time, so for the next few months you’ll be getting giant-sized postcards! Lucky!

Anyway, on to the kenmun:

http://yokai.com/kenmun/

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Greetings yokai fans!

Today is Hina matsuri, and like I said the other day, this yokai has nothing to do with Hina matsuri whatsoever; however, it is a doll and this is doll’s festival, so that alone makes it related enough for me. I hope you enjoy this creepy one!

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Greetings yokai fans!

Today I bring you two more fun yokai that live inside of you! I hope you’re all feeling well. 😉

In case you are wondering where your postcards are this month, there has been a slight delay and I haven’t been able to send them out yet. You may remember I asked last month about making new postcards. I ordered them at the end of January, and they were supposed to arrive in 10 days, but they haven’t come yet. So I’ve contacted the print company to find out what’s wrong, but for the time please wait a bit longer for January’s postcards. I will send them as soon as I get them!

And now, on to the good stuff!

The main reason I picked these two guys was because I thought they were cute. There’s not anything in particular connecting them, but I didn’t want to leave them out. I kind of feel that way with a lot of the critters in the Harikikigaki, but I had to draw the line somewhere, so I drew it right after these two. If you guys want to see more infectious yokai in the future, let me know and I’ll happily do some more!

In March I’m going to try to pick up the pace and complete a few more entries, since my painting speed has slowed down a bit during my move to Japan. As always, if you have any requests that you haven’t told me about yet, feel free to leave them in the comments!

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Greetings yokai fans!

As I am fighting off a cold and some food poisoning, I am wondering how many of these little guys I have inside of me right now! But painting has been helping me to forget the discomfort. Hopefully you can enjoy these without having to feel their effects!

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Greetings yokai fans!

I’m still battling jet lag after landing in Japan earlier this week. Most of this week has been spent house-hunting, registering with the city, getting my phone & accounts in order, and that kind of boring official stuff, but I have managed to squeeze in some painting time to work on these two guys.

The text these are from, the Harikikigaki, is an old book kept in the Kyushu National Museum. It details the human body, the five elements, and how they related to sickness. It’s based mostly on Chinese medicine and philosophy. I’m now working with a couple books based on the Harikikigaki that I didn’t have access to in the US, and since online sources only cover a handful of these “bugs,” I’m excited to get to do a little deeper work with more of them. Hopefully some of the upcoming ones will be new to the eyes of even the most dedicated yokai fans!

As you’ve seen with the previous parasitic yokai posts, I’m grouping them into pairs and trios based on shared traits. In this case, Koseu and Oozakenomushi are on the same page because they are both alcoholic bugs! Both of these guys live inside you and love sake, and of course cause you to drink too much. I really love the Koseu though, because not only can this bearded worm-bug speak, but it has a funny little umbrella protuberance on its head which blocks medicine, making him very hard to get rid of!

There will be another bug painting towards the end of this month, and sketches for that coming soon! I don’t yet have a proper studio space set up, so I’m squeezing in work whenever and wherever I have the chance.

More soon!

This post was made possible by the generous support from my Patreon backers. If you like yokai and want to learn more, please consider pledging $1 per month to support my work.

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