Iemon and the Ghost of His Wife, Oiwa (1832)

Artist: Katsushika Hokusai

Dimensions: 369 x 250 mm (14 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)

Color woodblock print

This print comes from Hokusai's famous series One Hundred Ghost Stories (Hyaku monogatari). This particular print captures the moment when Oiwa appears to her husband Iemon in a lantern. Oiwa's story has inspired countless chilling artworks and plays. She is just one of a genre of ghosts called yūrei, female ghosts who died cursing the men in their lives and return as vengeful ghosts to torment them. The distortion of Oiwa's face immediately establishes her as not only a supernatural creature but one that one that is burdened with unbearable sadness and emotion. The tilt of her eyes and brows forming an inverted V across her face as well as her bloodshot eyes are just a few of the artistic choices that set aside this depiction of Oiwa as particularly haunting. The bulbous, almost turnip-like shape of her head has an uncanny effect that shows that Oiwa is no longer human but a kind of tormented monster, inflated with horrific emotion to the point of bursting. The use of contrasting ink in this piece give it an overall dark effect to increase the fear factor of the image. All of this gives justification to Iemon's twisted expression of horror at this disturbing, bloated aparation of the once-beautiful Oiwa, mistreated and abused in life. The way Hokusai twists realistic imagery in this piece allows the viewer to find sympathy not only in Oiwa's wish of revenge but with Iemon's terror in this haunting image. It captures the character of tales of yūrei with the torment of not only Iemon but of Oiwa, one of the most influential ghosts of Edo.

Summer H

https://ukiyo-e.org/image/famsf/5050161212770007