- Museum number
- 2016,3011.1.1-10
- Title
- Object: Mizuki Shigeru chirimen e-hagaki 水木しげるちりめん絵葉書 (Crêpe-paper Picture Postcards by Mizuki Shigeru)
- Description
-
Postcards, colour. Complete set of ten picture postcards in original outer case (tatô) after manga drawings by Mizuki Shigeru depicting various Japanese ghosts and monsters. Crêpe-paper on card. One of 640 sets produced (out of 1000 originally planned).
The ten subjects in their original sequence:
1. Tsurube-otoshi 釣瓶落とし (Bucket Bomber)
2. Hoho-nade 頬撫で (Cheek Brushers)
3. Murei 夢霊 (Dream Spirit)
4. Azuki-arai 小豆洗い (Bean Washer)
5. Akaname あかなめ (Grime Licker)
6. Kingyo no yûrei 金魚の幽霊 (Goldfish Phantom)
7. Chirizuka Kaiô 塵塚怪王 (Demon King of the Dust Heap)
8. Chôchin Oiwa 提灯お岩 (Lantern-demon Oiwa)
9. Nurikabe 塗壁 (Plastered Wall)
10. Kutabe くたべ
- Production date
- 2003
- Dimensions
-
Height: 16.90 centimetres (case, portrait format)
-
Height: 10 centimetres (each card, landscape format)
-
Width: 12.30 centimetres (case, portrait format)
-
Width: 15 centimetres (each card, landscape format)
- Curator's comments
- The ten subjects:
1. Tsurube-otoshi 釣瓶落とし (Bucket Bomber; plummets from trees and eats people; giant head plummeting to the ground. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 468)
2. Hoho-nade 頬撫で (Cheek Brushers; girl frightened by reeds sprouting hands; associated with Yamanashi prefecture. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 662)
3. Murei 夢霊 (Dream Spirit; woman’s head with elongated neck appearing to a traveller; similar to Rokuro-kubi. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 702)
4. Azuki-arai 小豆洗い (Bean Washer; active at night under bridges and near streams producing a scrubbing sound as though cleaning cooking beans, never seen; Mizuki suggests that the sound of shallow water rushing over stones may have recalled that of beans being scrubbed in a sieve. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 41)
5. Akaname あかなめ (Grime Licker; at night licks the grime off water buckets and other surfaces in bathhouses. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 34)
6. Kingyo no yûrei金魚の幽霊 (Goldfish Phantom; vengeful spirit of a woman who, murdered by drowning in a goldfish bowl, possesses the bodies of goldfish and terrorizes the woman who killed her. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 263)
7. Chirizuka Kaiô 塵塚怪王 (Demon King of the Dust Heap; opening a box filled with demons; from the idea that a heap of dust can turn into a demon; composition and detail closely based on the illustration of the same subject in Gazu hyakki tsurezure bukuro [1784]; JH.527. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 456)
8. Chôchin Oiwa 提灯お岩 (Lantern-demon Oiwa; lantern-demon frightening a girl; story known from the kabuki play Yotsuya kaidan [Ghostly Tale of Yotsuya, on the Tôkaidô; 1825], about a woman whose ghost haunts the man who married her for her money and then killed her; illustration based on a print by Hokusai; a netsuke in the museum’s collection HG.219 also relates to this print. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 449)
9. Nurikabe 塗壁 (Plastered Wall; expands endlessly; blocking a hunter’s path. Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 534)
10. Kutabe くたべ (frightening woodcutters; 'Kutabe' should have the body of a tiger, but here with the body of a bull, conflated with Hakutaku. Entry in Nihon yôkai taizen, p. 266, refers to Hyakki yagyô shûi 百鬼夜行拾遺 (1805), vol. 3, where 'Hakutaku' illustration shows creature with a similar bull-like body).
Mizuki Shigeru, one of Japan’s leading manga artists, was known for creating, writing and illustrating the spooky and macabre adventures of Ge-ge-ge no Kitarō (Y-y-yikes Kitarō), a one-eyed boy-monster born in a graveyard. These ten crêpe-paper postcards reproduce illustrations that Mizuki drew for a related series of “monster pictures” (yōkai-ga 妖怪画) which, developing the artist’s preferred theme, depict apparitions familiar in Japan since at least the Edo period (1615-1868). Produced over a period of fifty years, the series was compiled in Mizuki’s 'Definitive Encyclopedia of Japanese Monsters' (Ketteiban Nihon yōkai taizen 決定版 日本妖怪大全 Kodansha, 2014), a compendium of 895 creatures, each with accompanying explanation by the artist, including personal reminiscences. Beyond representing Mizuki’s manga, the set also reflects the history of design in Japan. Crêpe-paper was a popular medium for printing short songbooks and illustrated children’s stories in Japan during the 1880s-90s (mid-Meiji period). This “antique” material, the mysterious, muted coloration and the late-Meiji-style pattern used for the outer case together conjure the impression of a sheaf of papers found at the bottom of an old storage chest, the Japanese equivalent of Gothic Victoriana, roughly in keeping with the subject of the postcards. The specially designed pattern also recalls Ge-ge-ge no Kitarō’s magical striped hair-jacket (chanchanko), a long sleeveless vest woven of the single hairs left behind by spirits as they die (the same pattern and paper were used to produce The Collected Works of Mizuki Shigeru, Crêpe-paper Edition [Chirimen-bon Mizuki Shigeru sakuhin shū ちりめん本 水木しげる作品集, 2002]). The copyright agreement with Mizuki Productions allowed for an edition of 1000 sets, of which 640 sets were produced. The Japanese illustrated book collection includes volume 6 of Mizuki’s autobiography (JIB.979).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2017 Apr-Dec, London, BM, Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Ketteiban Nihon yôkai taizen (Encyclopedia of Japanese Monsters)
- Acquisition date
- 2016
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2016,3011.1.1-10
