“An Otherworld Afternoon” has finally been printed! If you’d like to get your hands on a copy, please visit the link in my bio.
I think it was the mixture of humour and everyday mundanity, placed alongside the supernatural, that first drew me to this design by Kawanabe Kyōsai. The composition features two yōkai, a broad category of supernatural beings in Japanese folklore encompassing strange creatures, spirits, shapeshifters, and all manner of uncanny phenomena. Neither wholly monstrous nor necessarily malevolent, yōkai inhabit a world in which the extraordinary and the ordinary frequently intersect.
Kyōsai returned to these supernatural subjects throughout his career, drawing upon a rich tradition of Japanese monster lore, illustrated scrolls, and fantastical imagery. His depictions of yōkai could be chaotic, grotesque, and wonderfully theatrical, as seen in works associated with the Hyakki Gadan (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) tradition. In these scenes, supernatural creatures spill across the picture plane, transforming the night into a procession of strange and often unruly beings. They taunt, torment, and occasionally terrify their human counterparts, delighting in the disruption of the everyday world.
But here, we encounter something rather different.
In a moment of apparent relaxation between two supernatural companions, the long-necked creature stretches upwards to snatch a secluded peach nestled among the tree’s branches. His sudden elongation seems to provoke an immediate reaction from his one-eyed companion. Is it fear? Outrage? Disbelief? Whatever the emotion, the expression is unmistakably one of disapproval.
There is something wonderfully human about this exchange. The supernatural spectacle of a demon extending its neck to impossible lengths is reduced to a petty moment of social friction: one creature simply cannot believe what the other is doing. The peach, meanwhile, becomes the unlikely center of this miniature drama.
Kyōsai understood the comic possibilities of this relationship beautifully. By placing the extraordinary alongside the mundane, he allows us to laugh at creatures that might otherwise inspire fear. Even among demons, it seems, there is room for irritation, disapproval, and the occasional disagreement over a piece of fruit.
Perhaps the supernatural world is not so different from our own after all.
This print is composed of 8 different color impressions
Carved on 6 blocks of American Cherry and Shina Plywood
Designed by Kawanabe Kyosai
Carved by Brandon Johnson
Printed by Brandon Johnson
“An Otherworld Afternoon” has finally been printed! If you’d like to get your hands on a copy, please visit the link in my bio.
I think it was the mixture of humour and everyday mundanity, placed alongside the supernatural, that first drew me to this design by Kawanabe Kyōsai. The composition features two yōkai, a broad category of supernatural beings in Japanese folklore encompassing strange creatures, spirits, shapeshifters, and all manner of uncanny phenomena. Neither wholly monstrous nor necessarily malevolent, yōkai inhabit a world in which the extraordinary and the ordinary frequently intersect.
Kyōsai returned to these supernatural subjects throughout his career, drawing upon a rich tradition of Japanese monster lore, illustrated scrolls, and fantastical imagery. His depictions of yōkai could be chaotic, grotesque, and wonderfully theatrical, as seen in works associated with the Hyakki Gadan (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) tradition. In these scenes, supernatural creatures spill across the picture plane, transforming the night into a procession of strange and often unruly beings. They taunt, torment, and occasionally terrify their human counterparts, delighting in the disruption of the everyday world.
But here, we encounter something rather different.
In a moment of apparent relaxation between two supernatural companions, the long-necked creature stretches upwards to snatch a secluded peach nestled among the tree’s branches. His sudden elongation seems to provoke an immediate reaction from his one-eyed companion. Is it fear? Outrage? Disbelief? Whatever the emotion, the expression is unmistakably one of disapproval.
There is something wonderfully human about this exchange. The supernatural spectacle of a demon extending its neck to impossible lengths is reduced to a petty moment of social friction: one creature simply cannot believe what the other is doing. The peach, meanwhile, becomes the unlikely center of this miniature drama.
Kyōsai understood the comic possibilities of this relationship beautifully. By placing the extraordinary alongside the mundane, he allows us to laugh at creatures that might otherwise inspire fear. Even among demons, it seems, there is room for irritation, disapproval, and the occasional disagreement over a piece of fruit.
Perhaps the supernatural world is not so different from our own after all.
This print is composed of 8 different color impressions
Carved on 6 blocks of American Cherry and Shina Plywood
Designed by Kawanabe Kyosai
Carved by Brandon Johnson
Printed by Brandon Johnson
