Chilling Creatures: The Supernatural in Japanese Art

Lecture by Manuela Moscattelio, Head of Japanese Collections at the Cernuschi Museum.

Like all peoples of Asia, the Japanese are fond of fantastic stories and ghosts. In popular Japanese beliefs, the death of a person and the disappearance of his carnal envelope does not necessarily mean the ascent to paradise. Indeed, some people who have left grief, anger, or regret on earth cannot leave this world, and it is said of their souls, the yurei (evanescent spirits, indistinct spirits, ghosts), that they appear to those affected by the spell. Thus, there are various types of ghosts: onryo (generally female spirits who seek revenge for an evil done to them during their life), ubume (ghosts of women who died during childbirth or left behind a young child), goryō (spirits of noble people).

Oyuki. Attributed to Maruyama Okyo. Circa 1780. Zenshoan.Tokyo.

The ghost of a blind musician. Utagawa Hiroshige. Zenshoan. Tokyo.

Weeping willow and moon. Ohara Koson. Zenshoan. Tokyo.

Ohwa. Katsushika Hokusai. Hyaku monogatari. 1831-32.

Since 17st^e s., literature, Ukiyo-e painting and theater kabuki used and developed the theme of ghosts; even today, films and manga exploit the vein

Ghost stories became more popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). Gradually the ritual of Hyakuza Hodan (Buddhist ritual to purify oneself from defilement) became a game called Hyaku Monogatari Kaidan Kai (collection of one hundred weird stories) This game was about getting together in the evening and telling one hundred scary stories to each other. At the end of each of them a candle was blown out. When the hundred tales were completed and the hundred candles extinguished, a frightening event was supposed to happen. It is said that warriors and samurai were very fond of this game, as it was a way for them to test their mettle.

Okiku. Hokusai. Katsushika. Hyaku monohatari.

Okiku. Utagawa Hiroshige.

Okiku. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Shinkei sanjuroku kaisen. 1889.

Summer in Japan, especially the month of August, it is customary to tell scary stories! Indeed, August is the month of ghosts: it is the month of O-bon, the only time of the year during which the spirits of the deceased can return to Earth. The souls of the ancestors visit their families while passing from beyond to our world, giving place to many traditions. But once the lid separating the world of the dead from ours is opened, it is said that it is not only the good souls of the ancestors who pass through our world...

Ghost Day (yūrei no hi) is celebrated on July 26 each year. It was on July 26, 1825 that the first performance of the play took place at the small theater of Nakamura-za. Yotsuya Kaidan, one of the most famous ghost stories of the archipelago.

Kasane and the monk Yuten. Hokusai Manga vol. X.

Kohata koheiji. Toyokuni Utagawa.

Hatsuhana purifying herself under the waterfall. Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

Kohada Koheiji. Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Zenshoan. Tokyo.

Certain peculiarities in their representation make it possible to identify ghosts: messy hair, a flowing dress without feet, a certain transparency, a white or very light kimono, a grimacing or deformed face (although this is not always the case). In general the yurei are female but there are also some male ghosts.

The first to have depicted these yurei was Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795). His Ghost of Oyuki (Yoko had a mistress in the Tominaga geisha house. She died young and Ōkyo mourns her death. One night his spirit visits her in a dream and, unable to get her image out of his head, he painted her portrait) served model and inspiration to other artists.

Kasane and the monk Yuten. Tsuba. Bronze, silver and gold. 1864. Hitotsuyanagi Tomonaga.

Nyctalopia. 2005. Matsui Fuyuko. Coll. Akimitsu Naruyama.

Ugetsu monogatari. Poster.1953. Kenji Mizoguchi.

All the greatest artists painted or engraved ghosts: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) painted The ghost of a blind musician, Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) took up the theme ofOyuki, Shunkōsai Hokushū (active 1809-32) painted oiwa in 1826 (probably the most famous Japanese ghost story, written in 1825 by Tsuruya Namboku IV as a play kabuki : Story of a wife disfigured by the cream offered by her husband's lover and who commits suicide), Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) also drew oiwa hyaku monogatari (1831-32), Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) and many others were inspired by oiwa, Okiku (unhappy heroine who commits suicide in a well to escape a cruel master), kasane (story of a disfigured woman whose husband murders), Otsoyu (daughter of a samurai who is dying of grief for a young samurai, Shinzaburo, with her servant Oyone. They will come back to haunt Shinzaburo who still sees them as beautiful but will die in the arms of the skeleton of the beautiful Otsoyu), Umeno who also dies of heartache.

The legends of yurei and their transcriptions in painting or printmaking have also inspired other artists and craftsmen to create netsukes, inros and even adorn a sword hilt or kimono.

GeGeGe no Kitaro (Kitaro Pushing Him Back), famous manga series by Shigeru Mitzuki published from 1959 has been brought to the screen many times.