Chinese Mythology - Bai Gui Yexing

[alenehan]

I thought you may like to see this. It is a very long (5m) scroll that seems to be a procesion of characters and monsters from mythology (as well as lots I don't recognise.) I would love to know what you all think. I have been unable to fully translate the text. As you can imagine the photos attached don't show the whole scroll so if you are interested in seeing the full thing have a look here:

http://fotoclam.com/public/pview/28/pano4.jpg

The photo is about 700k so beware if you are on dialup.

[skylee]

百鬼夜行 (ひゃっきやぎょう / hyakkiyagyo) is japanese mythology and the painting is japanese.

Hyaki-yakou : Nightly parade of one hundred demons. A common theme of Japanese art and literature, starting the Heian period. A 14th century scroll of this subject is noted for its horrid contents. A good example is the work of Toriyama Sekien.. Toriyama frequently painted ghosts, demons and goblins, collecting them in illustrated books such as Hyakkiyagyo (One Hundred Ghosts) and Zoku Hyakki.

After Toriyama came Hokusai, Yoshitoshi and Utagawa. The Meiji Era boasted of Kyosai Kawanabe (1831~1839) an outstanding ghost painter, who created “Gyosai Hyakki Gadan” published posthumously.

A hyaki-yagyō is a scroll depicting this parade of demons, starting with the 14th century scroll in Shinju Temple, Kyoto. Many of the demons are mononoke spirit-infested inanimate objects, especially discarded kitchen implements or containers returning to haunt the home that cast them out.

source

[alenehan]

Thank you Skylee