The Ghosts of Hokusai

Whilst the Japanese printmaker Hokusai is best known for his masterpiece “Under the Wave off Kanagawa“, dig a little deeper and you’ll find his wonderfully eerie ghost illustrations. Also known as yokai, his monster prints have been plucked from Japanese folklore. In his old age, Hokusai made a print series called One Hundred Ghost Stories. His five images have their own legend to accompany them. From the story of Oiwa, a possessed lantern who haunts her treacherous husband. To the Kohada Koheiji, a vengeful corpse that peers over the curtain to watch you sleep. Where do these monsters come from? And why was Hokusai so fixated by Ghost stories? All this and more, as we step into the ghoulish art of supernatural Japan. I enjoyed this one, and tried a bunch of new things too! Thank you all for 535k subscribers :) H. ------------- Music: Intro - Epic of Gilgamesh in Sumerian by Peter Pringle