I seem to have caught a cold… probably from lack of sleep. So my description today will be a bit shorter. Anyway, let’s look at another relatively obscure yokai from ages past…

Ao-nyobo

This yokai’s name is a bit misleading without context. Literally, it means “blue wife,” but it is also an archaic term for a young, inexperienced courtesan, or the servant of an aristocrat. The Japanese word for blue, ao, is similar to the English word green, in that it means both a color and a level of experience. And nyobo, meaning wife, can also refer to a woman of the imperial court in ages past. Quite possibly this yokai was invented as a joke with a double meaning. In any case, here she is.

Ao-nyobo is described as an ugly ghoul who lives in a dilapidated manor; she is a formerly rich but now ruined aristocrat. She spends her time putting on make-up, blackening her teeth (which used to be high fashion in Japan, as you may remember from ohaguro-bettari), and basically preparing for an aristocratic visitor. Despite her efforts she is somewhat unkempt and has bloodshot eyes from her obsessive vanity. If someone is unlucky enough to pay her a visit, he will probably become the main course. I can’t help but think of her as a parody of her age… sort of a Desperate Housewives of the Edo Period figure.

Ao-nyobo

Ao-nyobo

この妖怪の名前はその歴史的背景を知らなければちょっと混乱してしまうでしょうね。文字通り読むと“青い妻”ですが、貴人に使える女官（女房）のうち、若くて官位の低い者を現す際にも使われる言葉であります。日本語の“青”は英語のgreenに似た意味を持っていて、経験のレベルを現す際にも使われています。そして女房には妻という意味もありますが、その他にも貴人に使える女官として使われる事もあるのです。きっとこの妖怪は、二重の意味を持つ風刺か洒落で創作された妖怪なのでしょう。

青女房は醜い女の姿で描かれ、かつては貴人につかえていたが、荒れた廃墟に住んでいるものです。彼女は化粧する事に時間を費やし、お歯黒（かつての日本におけるファッションでした。お歯黒べったりohaguro-bettariを覚えていますか？）をつけ、誰かが訪ねてくるのをずっと待っているのです。

その化粧に費やす時間にも関わらず、彼女の髪はぼさぼさで外見を気にし過ぎて眼は充血しています。不運にも青女房の住み処を訪れてしまった者は、彼女のメインディッシュになるのかもしれませんね。きっと鳥山石燕はこの“女房”の風習を嫌って、風刺の意味もあってこの妖怪を創り出したのでしょう

Ao-nyobo

Yesterday somebody asked me if I had ever painted an “Aka-Fuji” — a red Mt. Fuji. I’ve only seen the mountain 3 or 4 times, and none of them were during sunset, so I never had the chance. But I looked it up and there are a number of gorgeous paintings of Mt. Fuji in red. As red is such an awesome fall color, and I was sort of in an ukiyo-e mood today, I decided to have a little fun with today’s yokai. I mixed the red, fall colors with a famous ukiyo-e print of Mt. Fuji and some contemporary Tokyo goth-loli style. Because yokai deserve to have trends too, right?

Hari-onago

Hari-onago, also known as Hari-onna, is “the hooked woman.” You may remember a smaller version of her from last year’s Hyakki Yako panels, but she’s such a vicious yokai I couldn’t leave her without giving her a painting of her own. Her story comes all the way from Ehime prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It is said that she wanders the island, searching for victims. When she sees a young man that she likes, she waits around trying to catch his attention. If she catches his eye, she will laugh, and if the poor man laughs back at her, she will lash at him with her long, barbed strands of hair and rip him to pieces. Ouch!

Hari-onago

その赤がとても美しい秋の色であると感じ、そして今日は私は浮世絵の気分がありますので、今日の妖怪はちょっと楽しい気分で描いて見ようと思いました。秋の赤色と有名な富士の絵と現代のゴスロリスタイルをミックスしています。人間に流行り（マニア）があるように妖怪の中にも流行りがきっとあるでしょう？

Hari-onago

針女子は「はりおんな」とも呼ばれています。昨年のHyakki Yako panelsで小さいバージョンの彼女がいた事を思い出した方もいるでしょうが、針女子はとても非道な妖怪ですので、針女子は単体で描くべきだったなとも思っています。

彼女の言い伝えは愛媛県に伝わっており、獲物を求めて四国を彷徨い歩いていると言われています。気に入った若い男をみつけると、獲物が近寄るのを待って注意を引こうとします。そして彼が自分の方を見た時彼女は微笑みかけるのですが、もし男がそれに微笑み返してしまったら・・・毛先に鉤のついたその長い髪で突き刺して八つ裂きにしてしまうそうです・・・。痛い！

Hari-onago

When it gets to be around 3 am and I’m finishing up the last touches on the day’s yokai painting, there’s always a sense of part satisfaction and part relief. Obviously working this late brings some amount of physical stress, but more interesting is the mental stress. In the morning I research yokai, in the afternoon I sketch, and in the evening through night I paint, and so when I sleep I also dream yokai. This can be fun, when I’m painting light and happy yokai, but it can also be pretty disturbing, especially now in this final week of October, when I am trying to paint scarier and scarier yokai each night. Your mind and eyes can play tricks on you late at night, especially when you’ve been focusing on one particular thing so intensely. Tonight is one of those nights, where thinking creepy thoughts is making my brain wander and see things that aren’t there. My wife also happens to be away this weekend, so lucky for me the sun will be up soon and the shadows won’t play too many more tricks on me…

Ubume

Some yokai are creative. Some are silly. Some are partially humorous commentaries, like the pair of brothel yokai we looked at recently. Others, though, are reflections of the social problems of their day. These are tragic reminders that folklore and superstition are not always simple fun and games.

When a woman dies just before or during childbirth, it is said that her spirit is unable to pass on out of anxiety for her newborn child. This turns into a type of ghost called an ubume, or “childbirth woman.” She appears like she did in life, except much more horrifying. That is to say there is no doubt she is dead and a ghost. Her face is etched with worry and sorrow, and she will not pass on to the afterlife until she is sure that her child’s future is secure.

In some stories, the ghost will try to buy food, clothes, or sweets for her child using dead leaves as money. In other cases, such as when the mother died in childbirth with nobody around to know about it, the ghost will try to lead living humans to the place where her baby is hidden so that they can take it in and raise it in her place.

Although they may look scary, ubume are usually harmless ghosts. They have one purpose, and it is a wholesome one, and they don’t haunt people or try to surprise them. Still, I would hate to run into a translucent , naked, bloody, dead woman on the road at night beckoning me to follow her into the woods…

Ubume

今日の妖怪の最後の仕上げが終わり、時計を見るともうすぐ3時になる所です。この深夜に絵を描き終える時、毎回満足感と安心感を感じます。このくらいの時間に絵を描き終えた時明らかな身体的なストレスを感じるのですが、興味深いのは精神的なストレスの方です。

朝、私は妖怪のリサーチを始め、昼からスケッチに取り掛かります。そして夕方から夜中にかけて絵を描いていますが、夜寝ている間も妖怪の夢を見ています。比較的明るい、そんなに重くない妖怪を描いている時はこのような状況も楽しめるのですが、楽しめると同時に不穏な気持ちにもなります。特にこれからは10月最後の週になるので毎晩どんどんと怖い妖怪を描いていく予定です・・・。

人は特に一つの物に一心に集中していると、深夜になる頃には脳と眼の“正常さ”が翻弄されていくものです。今夜はそのような夜の一つです。気味の悪い想像を膨らました私の脳はそれを想像し、眼は“見えない物”を私に見せるでしょう。幸運な事に今日はもうこんな時間ですから、やがて太陽が私の脳と眼に悪戯をする闇を消してくれるでしょう・・・。

Ubume

ある妖怪は独創的であったり可笑しかったりし、また先に紹介した遊郭の妖怪のようにそれにまつわる話にユーモアがあったりします。しかしながら今回のように、そのような面白い話しばかりではなくその時代の社会的な問題を反映したようなものもあるのです。伝承や迷信は常にシンプルで冗談を交えたものばかりではなく、時には再び悲劇を起こさないよう戒めるものでもあるのです。

女が子供を産む直前、もしくはお産の最中に亡くなってしまった場合、彼女の魂は赤子を心配するあまり成仏することができずに“うぶめ”（姑獲鳥・産女）になるといわれています。うぶめは生前と同じような生活をしますが、よりぞっとさせる姿をしています。彼女の顔は憂慮と悲嘆に包まれており、その魂は赤子の未来がもう心配ないと安心できるその日まで成仏する事ができないのだそうです。

ある話では、うぶめは枯葉をお金の代わりにして赤子のために食べ物や服、甘いものを買ってやろうとするそうです。また他にも、自分が死んだあとに残された生後間もない赤子の元へ生きている人間を導いていき、自分の代わりに子供を育ててもらおうとするという話もあります。

恐ろしい姿をしていますが、このうぶめは大抵人に害を与える事はない（うぶめに関する多くの言い伝えでは害をあたえるものもある）。彼女の目的はただ一つだけであって、人を襲ったり驚かしたりする事もない。しかしながら、その半透明の死んだ女性が裸でしかも血まみれの状態で夜道、手招きをして私を森の中へ連れて行こうとしたならば、その時の恐怖心は計り知れないでしょう・・・。

Ubume

Take-onna

Only about one week left until Halloween! I feel like I have Halloween fever now, having been painting monsters for so long. I’m starting to see yokai in my sleep! Of course, it certainly doesn’t help much that all the while I am painting, I am listening to Halloween web radio or watching horror movies. They say that when you paint, your emotions are imbued into the artwork, and I find that to be true when I am happy or angry or sad… so if I can keep myself at a constant level of scared-ness, that should translate well into my paintings too, right?? Or maybe it will just cause some kind of psychological trauma…

Anyway, I decided to have a bit of fun with today’s yokai and paint her on a different-sized shikishi. This longer shape is called a tanzaku, and I used them last year to paint the five Hyakki Yako panels.  Of course, the shape of today’s yokai certainly works nicely on this tall type of board.

Taka-onna

Today’s yokai is another aptly-named one: taka-onna, meaning “tall woman.” (Another reading of her name can be taka-jo, but the meaning is the same.) Her origins are somewhat obscure and come from a few different sources, but in all the stories there are a few key similarities. She appears as a normal woman some of the time, but when she shows her monster form, she elongates her body up to a few meters tall. Her favorite activity in peering into 2nd story windows and scaring whomever is inside. She is always malevolent, and either homely or quite ugly.

Taka-onna is probably most well-known from Toriyama Sekien’s illustration of a woman stretched out to a 2-story-tall height and peeking into a brothel in a red-light district. Like yesterday’s yokai, I guess prostitute monsters were popular in the Edo period. Unfortunately, other than the picture and the name, Sekien tells us nothing at all about her.

Other accounts of taka-onna don’t necessarily put them outside of a brothel, but their actions are basically the same: stretching their bodies like rubber bands and peeking into 2nd story windows.

In one story, a rich farmer notices his 5-year old son has gone missing. He orders his servants to search for him, but over a few days, one-by-one his servants go missing too. Eventually he realizes that his wife is behind the disappearances, as she has been eating the servants! He witnesses her hiding out in his well, and she is able to stretch all the way from the bottom, and out the top. Being a smart farmer, he ran away from the house and never saw her again.

In a few other accounts from other prefectures, she doesn’t do anything harmful other than peeping and being generally creepy.

Anyway, murderous or not, it would certainly cause quite a fright to anyone thinking they were safe and alone on the 2nd floor of their home, when all of a sudden they notice a hideous, haggish woman has been staring at them for who-knows-how-long! |

Take-onna

ハロウィーンまで残すところ後１週間になりました！ずっと妖怪を描き続けてきて夢に妖怪が出てくるようにもなって、なんだかハロウィーン熱に侵されているような感じです。ずっとハロウィーンウェブラジオを聞いて（ハロウィーンシーズンには怖い話をずっと放送するラジオがあります）ホラー映画も見ています。

絵には画家の感情が投影されると言われます。私は自分が楽しい時、悲しい時に描いた絵を見て、なるほどその通りだと実感しました。という事は・・・私が恐怖心を抱き続けられていれば、このプロジェクトの絵は恐怖心を誘う事ができるという事でしょう。どうですか？いや、きっと何かしらの形で心に燻ぶる物になるでしょう・・・。

どちらにしろ、私は今回の妖怪を描くのに少し面白い気持ちをもっています。いつもと違うサイズの色紙に描く、長い姿の高女です。この長い形のものは短冊と呼ばれるもので、昨年５体の百鬼夜行を描いた時にもこれを使いました。もちろん、この短冊は今回の妖怪を描くに適したものだと思います。

Taka-onna

高女の起源ははっきりとしておらず、それにまつわる話もいくつかありますが、それらの言い伝えの中でも共通している部分があります。彼女は普通の女として現れる事もあるけれども、妖怪の姿で現れる時は数メートルの高さにまで伸びているというのです。彼女の好きな事は2階まで伸びあがり部屋を覗き見て部屋の中の人々を怖がらせる事です。彼女はいつでも人の不幸を喜び、質素で薄汚い姿をしているといいます。

鳥山石燕による遊郭で2階の部屋をのぞき見ている高女の絵画はよく知られているでしょう。きっと遊女の妖怪は江戸時代に人気だったのでしょう。しかし残念な事に、その絵と名前以外の事を石燕は私たちに残してくれてはいません。

他の言い伝えでは必ずしも遊郭が登場するわけではありませんが、基本的に体がゴムのように伸びて二階を覗き見るという特徴に変りはないようです。

ある話を一つ紹介しましょう。裕福な農家が、5歳になる息子がいなくなったと気づいて家僕に探してくるよう命じました。しかし日がたつにつれ彼の家僕も一人ずついなくなってしまったのです・・・そして、ついに彼は気づきました。彼の妻が失踪の背後にいるのだと。なんと妻は家僕達を食べていたのです！ある夜彼がこっそりと妻の背後から見張っていると、彼女の胴体はみるみるうちに伸びあがっていったのではないですか。彼は驚いてすぐさま屋敷から逃げ、二度とその女の姿を見ることはなかったのだという・・・。

その他の言い伝えでは、高女はただ覗き見るだけであって人を傷つける事もなくただ気味悪がらせるだけであるとあります。

殺人鬼であろうとなかろうと、2階にいる人々を怖がらせる事には違いないでしょう。醜い女が“どれくらいの長さで”あなたの事をみているだろうか！

Have you ever had one of those dreams where everyone you know — your friends, your family, your coworkers — and even strangers are mocking you, laughing and laughing, and all you can feel is shame? Or maybe you are afraid of scary clowns, messing with your minds as their cackles and giggles echo in your mind? Well then today’s yokai is for you.

Kerakera-onna

Imagine you are walking down a street, late at night. Perhaps going home after a long day of work, tired, anxious to get out of the cold air and into your warm home for some dinner. You turn down an alley, the fastest way home even if a little creepy. Suddenly, you think you see something out of the corner of your eye. You turn… but nothing is there. Then you turn back, laughing at your silliness, when suddenly your laughter is echoed back at you. A giggle at first, then quickly growing into a high pitched, resonating cackle that fills the whole sky and your whole head, ringing in your ears. You panic, looking all around you, until you see the source: looming huge in the air ahead of you is the giant ghost of a middle-aged woman, thick and heavy makeup slathered on her face, pointing and laughing right at you.

You turn and run, panicked, but she is too big to get away from. Everywhere you go, she is there, laughing and laughing at you. You run into an open area with lots of people, and they don’t see her or hear her at all! But you do! She is always right there, behind you, cackling like a witch onto the back of your neck!

First introduced by yokai painter Toriyama Sekien, this yokai was one of the most popular ones on the Edo period. She is not deadly, or even physically dangerous, but she has a deeper, psychological effect that may end up doing more damage than your regular slash-em-up yokai. Her name comes from the sound of cackling, “kerakera,” in Japanese. She is the ghost of a prostitute — according to Sekien, one who has been *ahem* well-employed by many men. She appears as a middle aged, very large woman, wearing garish makeup. And even though all she does is laugh at you, it is supposedly enough to make the weak-hearted faint where they stand.

Kerakera-onna

Remember, you can buy high-quality fine art prints of this series from osarusan.etsy.com, or by sending me an email using the contact form on this site! | あなたはこれまでに夢の中で知り合い（同僚、家族、友達）から、または見知らぬ人から笑われ続けて恥かしがっている夢を見た事はありませんか？怖いピエロにおびえた事はありませんか？ケタケタという笑い声が脳裏から離れず苦しんだ事は？
今回の妖怪はそんなあなたにぴったりの女ですよ。

Kerakera-onna

夜道を一人歩いている事を想像してみて下さい。きっと長い仕事の後疲れていたら、寒い外から一刻も早く温かい家に帰って夕飯をとりたいと思うでしょう。そして例えすこし気味悪かろうと小道に入って近道をしようとる。するとそこに突然、視界の隅に何かが見え、振り返る・・・。しかしそこには何もない。気にし過ぎかなと笑いながら元に向きなおすと、不思議な事にあなたの笑い声がこだまとなって帰ってくる。始めはくすくすと笑う声であるが徐々に声は大きくなり甲高い笑い声が空全体に響き渡り耳と頭に鳴り響くのです。あなたはパニックになり辺りを見回し、ついにその正体を見つけます。そこには大きな中年の女が不気味に浮かび上がっておりあなたに向かって笑っているのです。

すぐさま道を引き返し逃げようとしてもその女はあまりに巨大すぎてとても逃げきれません。どこに行こうともその女はずっとあなたに向かって笑い続け、たとえ多くの人がいる大通りに出たとしても、あなた以外は誰ひとりその女の声が聞こえるものはおらず、見えもしないのだというのです！女はずっとあなたの首の後ろで魔女のように笑い続けているのです・・・。

鳥山石燕によって紹介されているこの妖怪は、江戸時代にとても有名な妖怪の一つでした。彼女は死に至るような攻撃をするわけでもなく特別に危険な妖怪でもありませんが、他の肉体的なダメージを与える妖怪よりも深い精神的な打撃を会えるのです。

倩兮女は淫婦の霊である。鳥山石燕によると、多くの男を弄んできた女が巨大な中年の女の姿が派手な化粧をして現れたものであるといわれています。

Kerakera-onna

Today was the first actually chilly day this fall. I was beginning to get worried because we had such a long, hot summer — I was afraid our fall would be late and warm as well. I finally noticed a little bit of color on the trees today, though, and I had to wear a light jacket today. It was wonderful, and it really made me feel like this is fall; and it really made me feel like Halloween is coming soon! And this perfect fall weather couldn’t have come at a better time, because we are now most definitely in the 3rd and final section of 2010’s A-Yokai-A-Day project: scary women! From now on until the end of the month I will bring you a different scary/evil/ghostly woman straight out of Japan’s most chilling ghost tales. Let’s take a look at today’s:

Kage-onna

With a name like kage-onna, or “shadow woman,” this yokai is pretty self descriptive. There are a number of ancient tales of this yokai/ghost appearing in homes, but they generally follow the same theme: the shadow of a young woman appears mysteriously on the opposite side of the shoji, or rice-paper door, but when you check the other side, there is nobody there. She may be accompanied by noises as well. The stories of people haunted by kage-onna generally don’t have people running screaming out of the house… they’re eerie and creepy, but more-or-less benign. Perhaps the creepiest thing, though, is that while usually this monster takes the form of a younger, attractive woman… other days, for no apparent reason, the shadow will be that of a withered old crone with a bell hanging from her neck.

On first thought, that doesn’t seem so scary to most people… but think about it, and visualize it. It’s pretty terrifying. I know — I sleep right next to our window, and I see shadows playing on the curtains all the time… and I have to go to bed right after writing this…

One other foreboding thing about kage-onna is that she often haunts houses that are already full of other yokai or mononoke. So if you happen to see one of these at your window, perhaps you should be expecting other company very very soon!

Kage-onna

Check my Etsy store for the most recent yokai fine art prints! And check back again later this week for when I list the final batch of yokai prints for sale! | 今日はこの秋一番の寒い日です。今年は本当に暑い日が長く続いたので、秋が来るのかと心配になったくらいでしたが、やっと少し木々の葉が色づき始めているのを見る事が出来ました。秋が感じられるようになってきたので、それと同じくハロウィーンが近づいていると実感してきます！秋を感じられるようになってきましたので、丁度いいタイミングです。これから第３セクションが始まり、最終セクションに向かいます！

Kage-onna　（影女）

古くからの言い伝えには家に出る妖怪や幽霊の話が多くあります。そのような話によく出てくるのは、若い女性の影が障子に映るが外を見ても誰もいないというものです。また、その女が現れる時には床の軋む音なども聞こえるのというのです。
影女はとても気味が悪く怖いものですが人を傷つけることはありません。しかし人を大変怖がらせるものです・・・。恐らく最も不気味な妖怪のうちの一つなのですが、多くは若くて美しい女性なのだそうです。ところが他の事例では、この影は首に鈴をつけた老婆の姿であるともいわれているそうです。
さっと見た限りではそれほど怖くは思わないのですが、ちょっと考えてみると・もしくはこれを思い描いて見ると・・・これほど怖いものはないですね。私のベッドの横には窓があり、カーテンには影が映っています。これを書き終わったらベッドに行かなくてはなりません・・・。

もう一つ、影女に関するお話があります。それによると、影女が憑いた家にはもうすでに他の妖怪や物の怪がいるという意味を持つというのです。もし、窓辺に影女をみたとしたらば、あなたは予見しなくてはならない。すぐに他の仲間も現れると！

Kage-onna

Today’s yokai is actually two yokai that share the same story. Like Gagoze a few days ago, we are looking at a unique legendary yokai rather than a particular type of monster. Today’s yokai comes from Nikko, a city famous for its ancient temples and shrines, in Tochigi prefecture.

Sessho-seki

Do you remember the adorable kitsune from last year’s yokai project? Well, like the other henge yokai, kitsune, or foxes, are not always cute and cuddly, and not always good. In fact, some time they are downright evil. Today’s legend is about one of those evil foxes.

During the reign of Emperor Konoe (1142-1155), there was a very famous courtesan named Tamamo-no-Mae. She was said to be the most beautiful and most intelligent woman in all of Japan. Her body always smelled beautiful, her clothes never ever wrinkled, and she appeared only 20 years old. There was no question she couldn’t answer, either, whether it be about music, astronomy, or religion. Everybody in the court deeply admired here, and Emperor Konoe even fell in love with her.

The emperor gave all his attention to Tamamo-no-Mae, and after some time he fell very ill. All of the priests and fortune tellers could not tell what was wrong with the emperor, and his prognosis looked very bad. Finally, an astrologer named Abe no Yasuchika informed the emperor that his darling Tamamo-no-Mae was actually an evil 9-tailed fox in disguise! She had taken the form of a beautiful woman in order to trick the emperor into loving her, and her plan was to kill him and seize the throne. Her plot uncovered, Tamamo-no-Mae fled the court.

The emperor sent Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke, the most powerful warriors in all of Japan, to hunt down the fox and bring her to justice. The chased and chased her but could never catch her. Finally, in a dream, the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae appeared to Miura-no-suke in a dream. She had prophesied her own death the next day, and she begged him to spare her life. He refused.

Sure enough, the next day Miura-no-suke found the fox and shot her with an arrow. She died where she fell, and her body transformed into a large boulder, which became known as Sessho-seki, “the killing stone,” for anyone or anything which touched the stone would drop dead instantly. The fox’s spirit left her body and became a ghost, who haunted the stone.

She haunted the stone for a long time, until one day a traveling priest name Genno took a rest by the stone and was threatened by the ghost. A good priest, he performed a ritual and asked the ghost to seek salvation, and eventually he convinced her to leave the stone. Since then, Tamamo no Mae’s ghost no longer haunts the stone… but who knows where she could be? Perhaps she finally found peace and salvation, or perhaps she has moved on, haunting other places. The stone still remains where it always was, in the Nasu, Nikko, Tochigi. If you ever visit Nikko, be sure to visit the stone… but touch it at your own risk!

Sessho-seki

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