A spectacular specimen of traditional Japanese yokai (mythic "monster") art has popped up on eBay. Wow, talk about where the wild things are! From what I can tell, this scroll may be a vintage copy of a centuries-old original, and really ought to be in a museum.
I hope the auction stays up for a while, and someone takes some time to copy the images elsewhere -- each one of these detail shots is so full of personality and mischief! The "Buy it now" price? $15,000.
I asked Yokai Attack author Matt Alt to tell us what we're seeing in this monstrous tableau, and he kindly obliged. His analysis below (with more after the jump).
The Haykki Yako (百鬼夜行), literally "the night parade of a hundred demons," is one of the most famous tales in Japanese folklore. It first appeared in a Buddhist text in the 13th century, and is the story of a nightmarish evening during which legions of yokai, oni, and other fearsome creatures erupted from their usual hiding places to openly terrorize the world of the living. According to one version, they paraded down Kyoto's Ichijo-dori avenue in the late 1100s. The Hyakki Yako (also spelled "Yagyo") inspired countless generations of Japanese artists, including Toriyama Sekien, who penned an influential series of yokai guides in the 1770s; woodblock artists of the 1800s; and manga masters such as Mizuki Shigeru in the 20th century.
A handful of illustrated scrolls depicting the event are known to exist, mainly from the early Edo period (1603 - 1868). They weren't created as fine art but rather as entertainment, passed around and scrolled through together with friends, just as people enjoy comic books, television shows, or video games with friends today.
And now, somewhat incredibly, one has appeared on eBay -- tattered, worm-eaten, but its yokai and creatures marching along the page clear as the day they were painted. The opening bid? A cool $15,000."Japanese Antique Rare Scroll : "HYAKKI-YAKO" @b666" (eBay, Thanks for the heads up, Darren Garrison!)Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of seeing the original, authenticated Hyakki Yako scrolls when they were briefly displayed at the National Museum of Japanese History. (We covered the event for a special Yokai and Yurei episode of NHK's Tokyo Eye show: video part 1, part 2, part 3.)
This eBay specimen is very much in keeping with their style. The depiction of "tsukumo-gami," or "artifact-spirits" -- everyday objects and tools taken haunted, sentient form -- is a hallmark of the genre. And that is precisely why I have such mixed feelings about seeing it put up on the auction block.
Who painted this scroll? When did they paint it? Is it even real? If it really is a vintage scroll -- something we won't truly know until a real expert authenticates it -- it is a part of Japan's cultural heritage. To quote a certain archaeologist-adventurer, "it belongs in a museum!"
But that said, anyone have $15K they just have lying around and want to buy this for me, I promise I will get it authenticated and put it somewhere where the world will enjoy it instead of locking it away in my closet.
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Is the Hyakki Yako based on a natural event of some kind? Does anyone know?
The first image is interesting, because the eye is in the same style as the pacific northwest native American Indians.
http://images.google.com/images?q=pacific northwest indian art
Nighmarishly awesome!
hadlock, there are some pretty amazing historical records of Japanese sailors being shipwrecked in the Aleutians, Canadian, US and even Mexico coast. Caught up in storms and rudderless, they drifted clockwise around the Pacific. There are historical references going back as far as the 1600's that I've seen. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otokichi for a great story about three sailors who, after being shipwrecked on the Washington coast, essentially circumnavigated the globe to return home.
That said, I'm not sure if there are any records or stories of people or artifacts going the other way.
The Tanuki stage a parade of Yokai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai in Pom Poko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko :)
The "hyakki" means there are 100 (or so) monsters. They are mostly angry household item spirits. You can see stirrups, make-up items, cooking pots, water buckets, baskets, etc. in the monsters' forms. These significant household items need to be treated well and, when beyond repair, must not be merely thrown away but rather discarded at an appropriate shrine. The priests at the shrine gather these items and perform rites before burning them, keeping the spirits happy. The scroll shows what you will face if you do not respect your special belongings or fail to dispose of them respectably. Beautiful pics. Thanks for the great link!
Wow, thanks, Xeni! I love these little demons: very Hieronymus-Bosch-like.
Images from even earlier 100-ghost and 100-monster scrolls are scarier, imo. Here are more links for the curious.
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/08/ghost-scroll-collection-at-zenshoan-temple/
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/10/anatomy-of-japanese-folk-monsters/
So does the first picture represent the demon spirit of a hockey puck then?
Why do the Japanese keep using up all the awesome? Save some for us!
Thanks for the tip! 20 minutes well spent. I am *so* using some of these as social network avatars.
Awesome pictures. I'm thinking in printing some of them in t-shirts ;) Btw pictures uploaded to my blog http://www.seonol.com/2009/10/arte-tradicional-japones-a-la-venta-en-ebay/ and flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/turk_182/sets/72157622625633804/
More scrolls:
http://webpages.charter.net/garrison6328/scroll/scrolls.html
I second the Pom Poko referral. If you've never seen it, rent it right this second.
Holy cats- I have one of these (birth gift from an eccentric godfather) and could never find anything out about it. It's pretty spectacular. I guess I should have it scanned and put online. Mine has a pink rabbit in a kimono that pops up here an there amongst all the monsters- does anyone know who that character is?
This looks (rolled up) amazingly like the sort of mock-ancient scrolls the chinese sell to tourists in rural tourist traps along the southwest.. I'd have to guess it's not hard to forge, but he seems a decent seller and it's japanese, so.. who can say. But at that price, it really ought to be sold somewhere else.. surely?