The is an

18th century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trad ...

collection of depicting Japanese ''

yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

'' by poet and painter

Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun pros ...

. The whereabouts of the original work are presently unclear; its contents are known from a reprinting released by the Kitada Shisui Collection in 1928. It is thought that the collection was made during the period between 1754 and 1757, when Buson was studying painting in Miyazu,

Tango Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...

, at the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. In total, eight different kinds of are depicted. Some of the works are annotated with just the name of the being portrayed, whereas others include a more detailed story. It has been surmised that, whilst Buson was travelling across Japan, he picked up various stories about different kinds of regional ''yōkai'', and that the ''yōkai emaki'' contains his realisation of those stories. Buson, who excelled in the ''

haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...

''-style, forsook realism, and instead painted his ''yōkai'' in a manner that uniquely resembles modern Japanese ''

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

''. Most traditional paintings of ''yōkai'' from Japan's mediaeval period (1185–1568) portrayed them as supernatural beings, the fearful harbingers of disaster, but works from the Edo period (1603–1868), including Buson's, paint them as familiar, funny, creatures that can be enjoyed as

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

. This trend continues in modern ''yōkai'' manga, which have their origins in Edo period works like Buson's.

Excerpts of the ''emaki''

File:Buson Bakeneko.jpg, "''

Bakeneko The (, "changed cat") is a type of Japanese , or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a , or supernatural cat. It is often confused with the , another cat-like . The distinction between them is often ambiguous, but the largest difference ...

'' of the Sasakibara Family" File:Buson Akago-no-kai.jpg, "''Akago no kai''" File:Buson Nopperabo.jpg, "The ''

Noppera-bō The , or faceless ghost, is a Japanese yōkai that looks like a human but has no face. They are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a '' mujina'', an old Japanese word for a badger or raccoon dog. Although the ''mujina'' can assume the form of th ...

'' of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

" File:Buson Ubume.jpg, "The ''

Ubume are Japanese yōkai of pregnant women. They can also be written as '. Throughout folk stories and literature the identity and appearance of ubume varies. However, she is most commonly depicted as the spirit of a woman who has died during childbir ...

'' of

Yokote is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 89,574 in 34,240 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Yokote is located in southeast c ...

" File:Buson Yonaki-babaa.jpg, "The ''yonakibabā'' of Enshū" File:Buson Oriental Melon.jpg, "The oriental melon monster of Yamashiro" File:Buson Watermelon.jpg, "The watermelon monster of Kizu"

References

{{Reflist 18th-century manuscripts Emakimono