Glacial Errata, No. 20

[Editor’s Note: Somehow I thought yesterday was Sunday! Sorry all. Tonight Iron Maiden begin their 50th Anniversary Tour, the Run For Your Lives Tour, in Europe, and I’m heartbroken to not be there. See you next week.]

One: The Plate Ghost

In his 70s, Katsushika Hokusai began a series of prints entitled 100 Ghost Stories, re-creating popular Edo ghost tales of the era. This one, The Plate Ghost or The Plate Mansion, tells the story of a maid who accidentally breaks a set of valuable china; her master, enraged, throws her into the well. Soon, neighbors hear her ghost from the well, counting, “…seven…eight…nine…I can’t find the last one.” Only when a monk added “ten” to her count, did the ghost finally disappear.

Two: The Laughing Hannya

The hannya is an old woman who’s been changed into a demon out of a deep-seated jealousy; here, Hokusai has married that story to the story of the yamanba, a mountain demon believed to devour children.

Three: The Ghost of Oiwa

A married samurai fell in love with a young woman, so her friends connived to get rid of the wife, Oiwa, offering her some poisoned face cream. This did not kill her but disfigured her, and her samurai husband left her in disgust. After her death, she returned to haunt him, taking the form, in this version, of a paper lantern.

Four: Kohada Koheiji

My favorite of the series, Kohada Koheiji was a failing actor who could never land a good part, until he finally got the role of a yurei (a faint or ghost). He was so good at it, that from then on, he could only get roles as a yurei. But his wife found his new vocation disgusting, so she and a lover murdered him, throwing his body into a swamp. Dead, Koheiji returns to the role he was born to play.

Five: Obsession

The snake at the altar here represents an obsession that carries on after death. While the series is titled One Hundred Ghost Stories, Hokusai only completed five prints. Whatever his interest in ghost stories, it did not appear to be an obsession that continued after his death.