Japan Supernatural

Japan Supernatural PDF Author: Melanie Eastburn
Publisher: Art Gallery of New South Wales
ISBN: 9781741741469
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
From the pioneering work of eighteenth-century painter Toriyama Sekien to contemporary superstar Takashi Murakami, Japan Supernatural presents wildly imaginative works by Japanese artists past and present and takes readers on a journey of discovery through the astonishing array of yōkai culture and yūrei (ghosts)--phenomenal beings from fiendish goblins to mischievous shapeshifters--that have inhabited Japanese culture for centuries. Once a means of explaining the unexplainable, they have been kept alive in stories and artworks. Evolving into a form of entertainment ranging from horror to the comical, they have maintained an ongoing presence in Japanese novels, films, anime, manga, and games. Drawn from around the world, the artworks illustrated in Japan Supernatural date from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and include fantastically detailed ukiyo-e woodblock prints, miniature netsuke, wall-sized scrolls, and large-scale contemporary photographs, paintings, and installations. Some of the greatest Japanese artists of the past, including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and Kawanabe Kyosai, are featured alongside contemporary artists such as Chiho Aoshima, Miwa Yanagi, and Takahashi Murakami, who update the tradition for the present.

Japan Supernatural

Japan Supernatural PDF Author: Melanie Eastburn
Publisher: Art Gallery of New South Wales
ISBN: 9781741741469
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the pioneering work of eighteenth-century painter Toriyama Sekien to contemporary superstar Takashi Murakami, Japan Supernatural presents wildly imaginative works by Japanese artists past and present and takes readers on a journey of discovery through the astonishing array of yōkai culture and yūrei (ghosts)--phenomenal beings from fiendish goblins to mischievous shapeshifters--that have inhabited Japanese culture for centuries. Once a means of explaining the unexplainable, they have been kept alive in stories and artworks. Evolving into a form of entertainment ranging from horror to the comical, they have maintained an ongoing presence in Japanese novels, films, anime, manga, and games. Drawn from around the world, the artworks illustrated in Japan Supernatural date from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and include fantastically detailed ukiyo-e woodblock prints, miniature netsuke, wall-sized scrolls, and large-scale contemporary photographs, paintings, and installations. Some of the greatest Japanese artists of the past, including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and Kawanabe Kyosai, are featured alongside contemporary artists such as Chiho Aoshima, Miwa Yanagi, and Takahashi Murakami, who update the tradition for the present.

Japanese Ghosts & Demons

Japanese Ghosts & Demons PDF Author: Stephen Addiss
Publisher: George Braziller
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Japan has perhaps the most lively and richly developed tradition of supernatural lore of any civilization. It is comprised of some of the most relentlessly fearsome goblins, demons, metamorphosed animals and ghosts ever known to man. Japanese poets, actors, dancers, and artists have all delighted in portraying these monsters, often with a playfulness and humor that mitigates the demons' more ferocious qualities, but also with a bold, dramatic fervor designed to impress upon their audiences the lessons of folklore. For, like our own mythological and fairy-tale characters, Japan's supernatural inhabitants suggest much about the morals of the Japanese people and of their efforts to understand the mysteries of the world. This is the first book devoted to the study of the supernatural world and its representation in Japanese art. From the 17th to the 19th centuries many of Japan's most brilliant artists, including Hiroshige, Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, and Zeshin, allowed their imaginations free rein to present these mysteries in a variety of media, including paintings, woodblock prints, screens, netsuke and inrō sculptures, and fans. The 49 color plates and 75 black and white illustrations presented here show a stunning array of Japan's most fiendish figures. Each of the ten chapters focuses on one of the most important themes in Japanese lore, discussing its anthropological meaning and literary and artistic interpretations. -- from back cover.

Supernatural and Mysterious Japan

Supernatural and Mysterious Japan PDF Author: Catrien Ross
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462916716
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Since time immemorial, tales of the spooky, paranormal, and mysterious have been staples of folklore across the world. Japan is no exception, and its unique position as a melting pot for cultures from around Asia gives it a particularly rich heritage of supernatural legend and tradition. To write this book on Japan's ghosts and other freaky phenomena, author Catrien Ross collected accounts of the eerie and terrifying from around Japan. Along the way, she braved frightening locales including the unquiet grave of the beautiful, betrayed Oiwa, and sacred Mount Osore, a gateway for communicating with the dead. The result of her journeys is a glimpse into hidden aspects of the Japanese world of the paranormal: a world of blind, women shamans, trees that grow human hair, weeping rocks, and even a graveyard where Jesus is reputed to have been buried. Covering ancient and modern times, Supernatural and Mysterious Japan offers not only some good, old-fashioned scary stories, but some special insights into Japanese culture and psychology. It delivers terrific entertainment—and some good chills—for the Japanophile and the aficioniado of the supernatural, alike.

Kaibyo: the Supernatural Cats of Japan

Kaibyo: the Supernatural Cats of Japan PDF Author: Zack Davisson
Publisher: Mercuria Press
ISBN: 9781634059183
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Woodblock prints, essays, and translations scratch to light the secret lives of Japan's mythological felines.

Yurei

Yurei PDF Author: Zack Davisson
Publisher: Chin Music Press Inc.
ISBN: 0988769352
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"I lived in a haunted apartment." Zack Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan's ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Eerie red marks on the apartment's ceiling kept Zack and his wife on edge. The landlord warned them not to open a door in the apartment that led to nowhere. "Our Japanese visitors had no problem putting a name to it . . . they would sense the vibes of the place, look around a bit and inevitably say 'Ahhh . . . yurei ga deteru.' There is a yurei here." Combining his lifelong interest in Japanese tradition and his personal experiences with these vengeful spirits, Davisson launches an investigation into the origin, popularization, and continued existence of yurei in Japan. Juxtaposing historical documents and legends against contemporary yurei-based horror films such as The Ring, Davisson explores the persistence of this paranormal phenomenon in modern day Japan and its continued spread throughout the West. Zack Davisson is a translator, writer, and scholar of Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the translator of Mizuki Shigeru's Showa 1926–1939: A History of Japan and a translator and contributor to Kitaro. He also worked as a researcher and on-screen talent for National Geographic's TV special Japan: Lost Souls of Okinawa. He writes extensively about Japanese ghost stories at his website, hyakumonogatari.com.

Daughter of the Sword

Daughter of the Sword PDF Author: Steve Bein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 045141635X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
As the only female detective in Tokyo's most elite police unit, Mariko Oshiro has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. But when he gives her the least promising case possible, the attempted theft of an old samurai sword, it proves more dangerous than anyone on the force could have imagined. Mariko's investigation has put her on a collision course with a curse centuries old and as bloodthirsty as ever. She is only the latest in a long line of warriors and soldiers to confront this power, and even the sword she wields could turn against her.

Japanese Ghost Stories

Japanese Ghost Stories PDF Author: Lafcadio Hearn
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241381282
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The dead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral brides possess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh in these chilling Japanese ghost stories retold by a master of the supernatural. Lafcadio Hearn drew on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese folklore - including the headless 'rokuro-kubi', the monstrous goblins 'jikininki' or the faceless 'mujina' who stalk lonely neighbourhoods - and infused them with his own memories of his haunted childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of striking and eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in their own right. Edited with an introduction by Paul Murray

Haunted Japan

Haunted Japan PDF Author: Catrien Ross
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462921337
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
A delightfully creepy telling of Japanese ghost stories. Japanese folklore is abundant with tales of ghostly creatures and the supernatural. In Haunted Japan, author Catrien Ross reveals the legends that have been passed down for generations and continue to terrify us today. To research this book on the country's ghosts, demons and paranormal phenomena, Ross collected accounts from across Japan including: Sacred Mount Osore, a Japanese gateway to the land of the dead, where people gather to contact those who have passed on The Tokyo grave of the samurai Taira no Masakado, where passersby regularly witnessed his ghost until prayers finally laid him to rest The mummified remains of the monk Tetsumonkai at the Churenji Temple on Mount Yudono--a place where bizarre happenings are common The ruins of Hachioji Castle in Tokyo, which was abandoned for many years because of its many hauntings The result is an unparalleled insight into the dark corners of the Japanese psyche--a world filled with horrifying creatures including Oni (demons with fierce and ghastly appearances), Yurei (Japanese ghosts who inhabit the world of the living), and Yokai (supernatural monsters). The book also includes several traditional Japanese legends, concluding with two of the most famous ghost stories--that of the wronged wife Oiwa and the tale of the Peony Lantern. This book is richly illustrated with 32 pages of full-color prints of frightening ghosts and legendary creatures from Japan's shadowy past. Haunted Japan is the ideal book for anyone interested in exploring the darker side of Japanese history.

Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan

Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan PDF Author: Noriko T. Reider
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This book is intended to assess the significance of kaidan, specifically its multi-dimensional reflection of an impact on Japanese culture in the Edo period. The legacy of Japan's cultural efflorescence in the late eighteenth century was far-reaching, its fruits often seen as epitomizing the entire Tokugawa period. In the years between the Kan'en era (1748-1751) and the chilling effects of the Kansei Reforms (1790), there was no dearth of innovative belletristic expression, but in the area of fiction, the yomihon of Ueda Akinari (1734-1809) eclipse all else. Professor Reider's outstanding study treats this unusual scion of a remarkable age, contextualizing his work from a unique perspective. Under various noms de plume, Akinari authored significant works in several genres of both poetry and prose, but his greatest opus is incontrovertibly his Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain), a collection of nine stories that revolutionized tales of the supernatural, elevating the genre to unprecedented levels of style and sophistication. Such a work deserves - and has duly received - ample critical attention from scholars on both sides of the Pacific, resulting in a plethora of seco

Strange Light Afar

Strange Light Afar PDF Author: Rui Umezawa
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1554987245
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
A bitterly jealous brother, a samurai who makes the ultimate sacrifice, a cold-hearted husband, a monk who mistakes desire for piety, a fraudulent merchant who meets his match in a supernatural river otter — the motives underlying these traditional Japanese folktale characters are explored with haunting results. Prompted by the sometimes illogical and perplexing actions of folktale characters (Why doesn’t the wolf kill Little Red Riding Hood right away?), master storyteller Rui Umezawa revisits eight popular Japanese folktales, delving beneath their sometimes baffling plot lines to highlight the psychological motivations behind the characters’ actions. In “Betrayal,” a treacherous husband poisons his wife so he can marry another woman. In “Paradise,” a young man saves the life of a sea turtle, who takes him to a luxurious underwater palace, where his every whim is fulfilled. A brother in “Rage” is consumed by jealousy when his brother’s dog digs up a cache of gold. In “Honor,” a samurai kills himself to keep a promise made to his blood brother. Tales of addiction, bravery, sex, greed, abuse and control — these stories take their inspiration from the great Japanese storytelling traditions, as well as from Noh and Kabuki. Sometimes laced with ironic humor, sometimes truly horrifying, these stories of the strange and supernatural will appeal to readers of all ages, but they particularly speak to teenagers. Evocative and haunting illustrations by the stunningly talented Mikiko Fujita add to the eerie beauty of this collection. A detailed afterword outlines the author’s storytelling approach and provides source material for each tale.