Greetings, yokai fans!

Today I bring you Byakko, the guardian of the western sky! The castle in the painting is Nijo castle, located in the western part of Kyoto. If you ever visit Kyoto, definitely visit Nijo castle, it’s a very cool place. I went there early in January, after the holiday, and I was one of maybe 50 visitors in the entire place. It felt like I had the entire castle to myself, and I barely saw a soul the entire time I was there.

Anyway, on to the constellation:

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Greetings, yokai fans!

Tonight I bring you Suzaku, the red bird of the south. Incidentally, I was just outside admiring the sky and saw red Mars next to the Moon in the southern sky; although Mars has nothing to do with this constellation other than both being quite beautiful and red…

The research for this painting went much like the one for Seiryuu; I modeled a picture of the sky and matched the constellations of the southern sky with an old diagram of the shijin from a Chinese astrological book. The building you see is Suzakumon, the no-longer existent gate on the southern end of the ancient capital cities. This model is based on a reconstruction of what old Nara’s Suzakumon gate probably looked like, though it is not certain.

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Greetings yokai fans, and happy 4th of July! Tonight’s yokai has nothing to do with fireworks, but if the sky is clear maybe you can see him in the night sky! Then again, since he is associated with the spring, it may be too late to get a good look?

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Greetings yokai fans!

I made a last-minute decision to title this piece Yatagarasu instead of kin’u, as I have been calling in. It’s not a big difference, but mostly this is because the bird is better known as Yatagarasu in Japan. You can still call it kin’u, or sansokuu as you like. 😉

I particularly like this painting, but that’s probably just because I am a bird lover. Enjoy the story below!

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Greetings yokai fans!

Your rewards (postcards and prints) for May are going out today. There was a bit of a delay, as Comic Con took up the first week of June, and I’ve had the flu since last week which has slowed me down quite a bit.

On a cheerier note, the first yokai of the month is done, and it’s a cute one. I hope you enjoy it!

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Happy Memorial Day! Many of you are probably enjoying backyard barbecues today. Today’s yokai would enjoy it the other way around, and eagerly gobble up some humans instead!

Amemasu

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Greetings yokai fans!

Tonight, I bring you the Uwabami! I hope you enjoy it. Most yokai don’t even have any legends, just funny descriptions about what they do. This is one of the rare chances when there are actually lots of real legends to share, so narrowing it down to one was hard. But I think the one I picked is quite entertaining. Let me know what you think in the comments!

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