The Flying Demon (1889).
The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is also the season of ghosts, spooks and spectres, so this post continues the Japanese trend of the past few days with a selection from New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892). The more I look at Yoshitoshi’s print series the more I like them; the draughtsmanship is stunning, while the composition and graphic effects are persistently inventive. The series subjects range through portraits of warriors and generals, gory crime scenes (Twenty-Eight Famous Murders with Verses), A Collection of Desires, and One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts was a later series produced from 1889 to 1892, and is notable as much for its demons as for its aesthetic qualities. Also of note is the frayed edges Yoshitoshi gives to each of the pictures, an effect I’ve not seen before in Japanese prints.
The Killing of a Nue (1890).
Skulls at Furuhara (1890).
Minamoto no Yoshihira (1890).
The Foxfires (1892).
The Heavy Basket (1892).
Spirit in the Waterfall (1892).
The Ground Spider (1892).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Japanese moons
• The Hell Courtesan
Skulls at Furuhara is particularly appealing. Disgruntled amurai dude has had quite enough of those fuckin skulls.