Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre (1844)

Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Dimensions: 37 x 25 cm (each sheet)

Color woodblock print

The giant skeleton that claims the center of attention in this print is terrifying, ominous, and an unusual sight in Edo woodblock prints, even ones depicting kaidankai, or tales of the mysterious. This skeleton, apart from its size, is mostly anatomically accurate. However, Kuniyoshi's addition of multiple excess rows of ribs adds to the disturbing affect this skeleton has on the viewer- and no doubt on the characters within the scene. It adds a layer of distortion to an otherwise accurate skeleton that can catch the viewer off guard and firmly establishes this spectre as a vehicle of fear. The void it arises from separates its existence from the more material world that the characters as well as the viewer are more familiar with. Instead of clouds separating the scene as is often seen in woodblock prints of this time, it is a fibery, paper-like rip that is just as much a tool of storytelling as it is a tear in the paper of the print itself, as a giant skeleton bursts out of its ink-bound world towards the viewer. This print encapsulates the terror of prints depicting popular kaidankai and how artists distort reality to invoke fear in the viewer.

Summer H

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1915-0823-0-915-916