posted on 02 Jun 2022

Something Wicked from Japan compiled by Ei Nakau

This extraordinary book, in both English and Japanese, is a superb introduction to ‘Ghosts, demons & Yokai in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces’ as the subtitle tells us. Ei Nakau has compiled this collection and written a very brief introduction but the majority of the pages are given over to sumptuous full colour reproductions of the original woodcut prints and their description and significance is provided in a small caption written by Noriko Yamamoto (the translation is done by Sharni Wilson).

For those people who are unfamiliar with this most Japanese of Japanese art forms, it helps to have a handle on what the term ‘Ukiyo-e’ means. The term relates to popular pictures drawn and woodblock printed which were made available for sale in the street during the Edo period (1615 – 1868). The term Ukiyo best translates as ‘the floating world’ and became a synonym for ‘everyday life’.

The drawings featured popular actors of the time, scenes from blood-curdling entertainments and, inevitably, erotica and this was the time some of the most famous and well-known artists were working: Utamaro, Hokussai, Sharaku, Toyokuni, Hiroshigi, Kuniyoshi.

The savage and increasingly grotesque drawings mirrored a society that was slipping into disarray. Ei Nakau tells us in his introduction:

“At the end of the Edo period, popular culture flourished, but on the other side of the coin, the Tokugawa financial collapse, the drastic Tenpo Reforms (1830 – 1868), severe earthquakes, endless attacks, civil unrest, government corruption and rampant crime verging on the end of days are shown in degenerate extremes of erotica, grotequerie and nonsense, casting the reflection of a dark and insecure rioting society into ghost ukiyo-e.”

Artists like Hokussai helped to establish the form in its earlier years and showed how popular stories of ghosts, sword-wielding heroes and sorcerers could be captured by the ukiyo-e format. In a classic bit of understatement, Ei Nakau says:

“As the sole amusement in an era which lacked television, movies or magazines, the outrageous images of ghostly dramas would have definitely stirred up the blood of an Edo period audience.”

What you’ll find inside the covers of this book are 70 Yurei (ghosts), Oni (demons), Kaijin (sorcerers) and Yokai (supernatural monsters) with an introduction to each creature’s story in Japanese and English bilingual text. In total there’s a generous 120 Ukiyo-e which have been selected to showcase the very best and most desirable artists.

Only available in card covers, the book is available to order from your local independent bookshop and will cost you a touch under £20 – which I think is an absolute bargain for such a stunning collection.

 

Terry Potter

June 2022