Hyakkai Zukan
Hyakkai-Zukan is a picture scroll painted in Genbun 2 by the Edo period Japanese artist Sawaki Suushi, a student of Hanabusa Itchō. The scroll serves as a supernatural bestiary, a collection of ghosts, spirits and monsters, which Suushi based on literature, folklore, and other artwork. These images had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan for generations.
It was formerly a possession of the costume history researcher and Nihonga painter Yoshikawa Kanpō and is currently held by the Fukuoka City Museum.
Overview
According to the scroll's colophon, it was "Written by Ko Hōgen Motonobu, copied by Abe Suō-no-Kami Masanaga, and copied by Sawaki Suushi on a winter day in the second year of Genbun, Hinoto-Mi." As "Ko Hōgen Motonobu" refers to the late Muromachi period painter Kanō Motonobu, it is believed that this work was created by Suushi, who made a copy of a manuscript that had been handed down as a work painted by Motonobu.This work contains a total of 30 yōkai paintings, and is considered a high-quality piece with careful brushwork. Because the production date is clearly known and other picture scrolls exist that contain the exact same number of yōkai with no differences, it is considered a standard work among "encyclopedia-style" yōkai picture scrolls. It is also evaluated as one of the essential works that can serve as a benchmark for modern research into picture scrolls depicting yōkai.
Related works
Among works painted in the Edo period, there are picture scrolls that were painted with almost the same arrangement and composition as this work. However, many of them lack postscripts and their production years are unclear, so the chronological relationship between them is not defined.Main examples with almost the same composition of yōkai :Bakemono Zukushi – The end of the scroll bears the signature "Authentic brush of Toba Sōjō".Bakemono Emaki – Contains fewer entries than Hyakkai-Zukan.
Main examples with an increased number of yōkai:Bakemono Zukushi Emaki 1802 – By the Kanō school painter Kanō Yoshinobu. It has slightly more entries than Hyakkai-Zukan, containing 35 types.Bakemono no e – Contains more yōkai than Hyakkai-Zukan, depicting creatures such as the Umibōzu, Umi-otoko, and Nurikabe. It is part of the Harry F. Bruning Collection held by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections.
Influence
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō
Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by the Ukiyo-e artist Toriyama Sekien, which is known as a work depicting yōkai of the Edo period, also records many of the yōkai found in this scroll. For this reason, it is believed that Sekien referenced picture scrolls of this same lineage when producing his book.Several names are changed in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō: "Wauwau" becomes "Ouni"; "Mehitotsubō" becomes "Aobōzu"; "Akakuchi" becomes "Akashita"; and "Nukekubi" becomes "Hitoban". Additionally, the "Kamikiri" is not drawn; instead, the "Amikiri", which similarly has claws shaped like scissors, is depicted.
Furthermore, "Yume no Seirei" is the only one whose correspondence with Gazu Hyakki Yagyō is not clear. However, yōkai researcher Katsumi Tada observes that because the character for "dream" resembles the cursive script for "grass" —and because there are documents that refer to it as the "Spirit of Grass"—it may correspond to the "Mokumi". Alternatively, because it relates to the meaning of "dream," Tada suggests it may correspond to the "Makuragaeshi" in Gazu Hyakki Yagyō.