Greetings, yokai fans!

Today I bring you the yasha. As I mentioned in the sketch post, it was hard to pin down a depiction of yasha, since the imagery has changed quite a bit — everything from and Indian-style god, to a Chinese warrior, to an oni, and a hannya. I went with the Chinese warrior style, partially because it fits with the style I have used for the other Indian imports, and also because the most common place you see yasha is in temple sculptures, which take on this style of depiction. The yasha that look like oni and kijo seem to be, for the most part, generic ghost or demon stories that were later attributed to yasha, or just a use of the word yasha to denote an evil spirit, but not necessarily the specific yasha we’re talking about here.

It was hard to resist the urge to paint a ghost-like yasha, though. Particularly because of this movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079041/ Yasha ga Ike, known as “Demon Lake” in English (it should be “Yasha Lake,” of course). The small, remote village in that movie is actually right here in Fukui prefecture, so that movie has a special place in my heart. I’m a sucker for the local legends.

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Greetings yokai fans!

The cherry blossoms are beginning to fall from their branches this week, and the parks and rivers around here are so beautiful! This is a big festival week, of course, and neighborhoods around me are all having small block parties. Fukui’s “historical parade” takes place this weekend, when all the streets are closed off, and people wearing historical costumes parade from the castle, through the town, and up the mountain behind my house. It’s a fun festival, and I’m excited that this year I get to live right next to the parade route!

This painting took a little while because I was having trouble calling it finished. Finally, after taking a long walk under the cherry blossoms, I realized that it was missing a certain amount of motion. So I added the falling flowers and petals and all of a sudden the painting felt finished. So here it is: the karyobinga!

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Greetings yokai fans!

I previously introducted the sketch of this as “ju,” which is another reading of the kanji for its name. However, when looking up information about it, it seems that in Japanese, kotobuki is the more common version of its name. This makes sense, as kotobuki is a common word and contains the celebratory and congratulatory nuance that this creature conveys.

Also, happy birthday to Kim, who requested this yokai. I hope it brings you good luck on your birthday!

Oh, one more thing! March marks the end of the first quarter, which means those of you in the $30+ patron category are going to get your physical goods shipped to you in April! As I mentioned before moving, I’ve been exploring the possibility of offering alternative rewards instead of simply three prints. A popular suggestion was to get original paintings instead of prints. Many of you messaged me to say that you loved the handmade inkbrush kenmun postcards. I’m really glad to hear that! So I figured that getting another original painting would be appealing for some of you.

I made a number of yokai paintings a few years ago, before I moved to the US. I kept them in storage here in Japan, and now that I’m here again, I’m displaying them in my art studio. Some of you who are very long-time supporters of my art purchased some of these paintings back before Night Parade was published! So if you’re interested in getting an original yokai painting this month instead of a set of three yokai prints, please let me know! Or, if you have a preference of three prints, please let me know what you’d like.

Ok, on to today’s yokai!

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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!

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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