Ghost Prints of Edo

By: Andrew S., Summer H., Jesse C., and Laku

This art exhibition will cover the importance and creation of Woodblock Prints, the cultural significance of ghost stories, the many variations of the spooky tales, and how they manifest themselves in the modern day.

In the Asuka period of Japan, a printing technique known as woodblock prints was created and was spread throughout the country as a means of mass production. This nuanced useful technology had one fault at the time of its creation, though its inability to create prints for colored paintings. Enter the Edo period, where Harunobu Suzuki mastered this woodblock print technique by developing color gradient/ colored carving blocks. (Kogei Japan, 2022) Through the cherrywood carving soaked in visually popping colors made from various pigments, artists could spread their colorful art on a scale that was previously not available to them, making it insanely popular throughout the Edo Period.

Artists used woodblock prints all over Japan to depict epic tales, breathtaking views, and classic mythology, so it was only natural that ghost stories joined the woodblock rush at some point. Ghost stories before their presence on prints could be seen throughout Edo cultures, such as Kabuki plays, poems, and books. Almost all the prints we see today are based on or loosely inspired by Kabuki plays and previous tales.

Ghost/Spirit imagery always had a presence throughout Edo, never as much as landscapes but still there non the less. Illustrators focused ghost pieces on distorting reality to convey a feeling of discomfort. This distortion of reality is demonstrated with most yokai having more limbs than usual, larger-than-life features, or even interacting with the canvas itself. Some artists also joined in on the horror-based genres with more unique approaches, such as Yoshitoshi. Yoshitoshi was the first artist to introduce a heavy amount of gore mixed with erotic imagery, which at first was immensely popular; this was called "Ero-Guro." (Wilkinson, 2022) His approach to "distorting reality" was to have citizens of Edo face the brutal realities they lived such as gang violence, gruesome wars, and murder. Whether it was challenging Edo culture through shocking imagery or creating monsters that boasted grotesquely exaggerated features, horror as a genre was popular not just because it was frightening but because it invoked excitement. (Haruhara, 2022)

        The majority of the prints seen in this exhibition will be of the Yūrei-Zu (幽霊図) subgenre. This style entailed woodblock print images of ghosts, demons, and other supernatural beings. Yūrei-zu had no problem growing in popularity, such as the "Ero-Guro" style, due to how entrenched ghost stories were in many aspects of Japanese culture. (Peñascal, 2020)  Since this would have been the first time these yokai of text came to life on canvas, it was a prevalent genre. In addition to this, most ghost stories had a moral attached to them or some crucial Japanese value causing these prints to be used alongside the stories making them popular amongst all ages and backgrounds.

The topic of ghosts was so popular in Edo that even the great Hokusai joined in on the Yūrei-zu movement. Hokusai having the majority of his work be woodblock based was a huge CenterPoint for merging the two subjects. His best-known work of demons and ghosts is the woodblock print series Hyaku Monogatari, One Hundred Ghost Stories, which will also appear within this presentation. Woodblock prints played an instrumental role as a visual medium in telling well-known tales and stories, both in history and culture. The crucial factor that went into prints, such as Hokusai's and Yoshitoshi's were the shared culture between the artist and the audience. This connection allowed for audiences to easily relate to the work they were seeing because the tales of monsters, yurei, and youkai were ones they too heard throughout their lifetime. Even the elites joined in on the ghost story fun with games such as Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: "A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales." This game would have a group of people sit in a circle light about ten candles, and with each story told, extinguish one candle. (What is Hyakumonogatari?, 2022) Ghost stories were a massive part of Edo's everyday life, and the introduction of visuals to accompany the tales only elevated their presence and influence even more.

        The reality-bending art of Yūrei-zu is still alive and thriving today through artists like Mizuki Shigeru and Jinjo Ito. Shigeru created a manga titled GeGeGe no Kitarou published following WW2. This manga was pivotal in reintroducing Japanese folklore and yokai into modern Japanese culture in the 1960s, with contemporary anime and manga having clear influences. As for Jinjo Ito, he plays the role of a modern-day Yoshitoshi with his grotesque "ero-guro" influenced horror mangas that seem to be inspired from the darkest depths of imagination. Jinjo Ito is most notable for his work Uzumaki, which covers an invasion of the spiral shape on the real world, causing horrific body horror. The fact that interpretations of past ghostly works are still thriving today shows how integral this genre of art is today and how the woodblock print only helped preserve that.

Bibliography

KOGEI JAPAN. 2022. KOGEI JAPAN . [online] Available at: <https://kogeijapan.com/locale/en_US/edomokuhanga/> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Haruhara, Y., 2022. When it came to horror, ukiyo-e artists kept their wits about them . [online] The Japan Times. Available at: <https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/07/10/arts/came-horror-ukiyo-e-artists-kept-wits/> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Wilkinson, A., 2022. Yoshitoshi: Beauty and Horror, The Life of the Iconic Artist . [online] Grimoire of Horror. Available at: <https://www.grimoireofhorror.com/the-yurei/toshioka-yoshitoshi-iconic-horror-art/> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

百物語怪談会 Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. 2022. What is Hyakumonogatari? . [online] Available at: <https://hyakumonogatari.com/what-is-hyakumonogatari/> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

MATSUURA, T., 2019. [online] Japan's Three Great Ghost Stories. Available at: <https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/japans-three-great-ghost-stories> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

Peñascal, M., 2020. Yurei: Discover the Chilling World and Tales of Japanese Ghosts . [online] VOYAPON. Available at: <https://voyapon.com/yurei-japanese-ghosts> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

nippon.com. 2022. Five Greats of Japanese Woodblock Printing . [online] Available at: <https://www.nippon.com/en/nipponblog/m00062/> [Accessed 8 March 2022].