Day 4266: Japanese Ghosts, Timeline.

 

 

"In the Shadows": junk collage, inks.

 

  

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Click : Mixed Artists, What's Going On?

 

  

 

 

2GN2S

Images of Ghosts Have Endured in Japan 

National Museum of Asian Art displays colorful woodblock prints

The Ghost of a Fisherman, Tsukioka Kogyo, woodblock print, 1899

Foreboding depictions of this Japanese ghost story and others like it populate the “Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints”exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Going back centuries, ghost stories carry great resonance in Japan. The over 50 works on display, created from the 1700s to the 1900s by Japanese artists, show the lingering power of woodblock print art and the stories that the art represents, which continue to flourish in Japan today. Coming out of the theater traditions of kabuki and noh, the prints proved equally as popular as the performances.

Oiwake: Oiwa and Takuetsu, no. 21, from the series Sixty-Nine Stations
 of the Kisokaido Road, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, woodblock print, 1852

Oiwa’s husband wanted to remarry his rich neighbor, but his wife was still very much alive. He first tried poisoning Oiwa, but it disfigured her horribly rather than killing her. Then, he threw her into a river to drown, which was indeed successful. But later, when he returned to that river, Oiwa’s ghost rose from the water to haunt him no matter where he fled. The story of Oiwa,  was told in the 1825 kabuki theater production of Ghost Story of Yotsuya on the Tokaido by Tsuruya Nanboku IV. Though the supernatural had long been part of Japanese culture, the Edo period (1603-1868) and this specific production gave permanent prominence to the genre. The production toured more extensively than earlier variations and featured the potent special effects of flames and actors spurting blood and flying via wires.

     

Tsuchigumo, from Prints of One Hundred Noh Plays (Nogaku hyakuban),
Tsukioka Kogyo, woodblock print, 1922-1925 

Shakkyo, from the series One Hundred No Plays, Tsukioka Kogyo, woodblock print, 1922-1927

This trick is even more effective onstage, since both corpses were portrayed by the same actor, doing a quick costume change. By the 1860s, the stage trick had been used for nearly 40 years, and in that decade, real water tanks were used onstage. Ghosts had also been prominent in noh theater going back centuries and aimed at a more elite, discerning audience. The rituals involved dances, chants and characters using elaborate wooden masks. Donning a mask meant “you are basically assuming not just the essence of that role—you’re becoming it,” he says. “It’s a kind of spirit transmission that happens for them.”

Viewers can likely connect these images of specters to modern Japanese horror in films like 1998’s Ringu, and its English-language remake, 2002’s The Ring.

In the late nineties, while finishing up at UCI, I was assigned a personal timeline. I was specializing in computer graphics, so I got permission to do mine graphically. I went through boxes of old photos and used the memories associated with the photos. I am thinking that every time I can't think of an update, I might share a timeline since so many of you have said you like the family stories. What do you think?

2012

 

 

 

 

  

 

A 7 minute video, The Great Potoo/ Ghost Bird, here

 

 

 

  

 

Just because ...

  

The Great Potoo, or Ghost Bird.
(video above)

 

Wednesday's Smiles ...