Halloween Leftovers.

I never did get to post the one yōkai picture that I found the most bizarre. I'll start off with it and then I'll add a few pics of my work Halloween party, add in a few more of kid's artwork, and several others. Then I can get back to posting normal everyday crap.

A while ago, I made mention of 狸 and their spectacular scrotum. Be sure to hit that link and listen to Eartha Kitt sing "Sho-Jo-Ji" and watch "Red Riding Hood gets a surprise". Here, several of the Tanuki's pals are drumming on  狸ばやし Tanuki-Bayashi's ballooning balls. 

Here's the anime-fable:

I've never seen PomPoko but it looks pretty sweet.

I was pretty busy this past week, so I didn't get much chance to decorate my apartment. As with previous years, I just draped some cutesy Halloween tinsel over my door and window (don't want to freak out the neighbours) but this year I added some decos that I scammed from NHK. Every week, a balloon artist teaches her art and I saved these pumpkins and drew a face on them. Not much, but it does look cute.

I saved spooky for our school's Halloween party where we had 60 kids turn up in full costume (pirates, princesses, poohs, etc.) and I ran a Skeleton Race in my room that was adorned with several of the pieces from my collection. I recycled last year's Spiderman costume and for some reason, all of my students recognized me, even with the mask on.

Tony did a great job with the pumpkins and this ghoul was the backdrop for the kiddies photo-shoot.

I didn't have many good shots of my John Lennon costume, so I thought I'd give a breakdown of what went into it.

The headpiece was purchased several years back, but all of the other beetles were won at UFO Catcher back when I was aficionado of the art. Last time, I put little Beatles wigs on 4 different bugs and included a cockroach as Yoko Ono. This year, I picked up a pair of leggings to give me an extra pair of legs, carried a big beetle as my wife and had two smaller beetles as Sean & Julian Lennon. A few people got it, but for the most part my originality was only appreciated by myself.

These bugs didn't make the cut, I didn't want to have too many insects, that'd just be silly.

Finally, here are a few more drawings from my JHS!

See ya next year for the Countdown...

Ladies Night On Halloween!

I thought I'd end off Halloween month with a few yōkai ladies. (For more photos, one can always head on over to my Facebook Album.)

泣きばばあ (Naki-BaBaa) also known as Sunakake Babaa as depicted in Gegege in the fifth picture here is an old yōkai woman who carries sand which she throws into the eyes of enemies to blind them. Diametrically opposed to this yōkai is this police officer.

I can't find any info on おきかべ (Okikabe) but she looks nothing like Jasmine here.

飛縁魔 (Hinoenma) bears entirely no resemblance to this petite Cave-woman but does share a name with an anime character.

沼御前 (Numa Gozen) is some kind of water-witch. I met several witches last night who were slightly more attractive.

磯女 (Iso-Onna or Rocky Beach Woman) is a Japanese ghost or a monster that has long hair and lives near the coast. The bottom half of Iso Onna is either translucent or is shaped like a snake or a dragon. and they have the ability to make themselves look like rocks that are placed near the beach. These gals are anything but translucent down below.

青女房 (Ao-Nyoubou) is a female ghost who lurks in an abandoned imperial palace.  She is rumored to devour young men who visit her. Either of these gals can devour me anytime.

影女 (Kage-Onna) is the shadow of a woman cast on the paper doors of a haunted house. These gals cast quite a shadow as well!

Finally is one of my favourite yōkai, ろくろ首 Rokuro-Kubi has a wonderful writeup by John Rozum. Rokuro-Kubi are yōkai that used to be ordinary human beings, but somehow they have come to suffer from a ghostly affliction that allows their heads to float away from their bodies, their necks stretching in between like a fleshy garden hose, sometimes indefinitely. In their daytime human forms, Rokurokubi often live undetected and may even take mortal spouses. Many Rokurokubi become so accustomed to such a life that they take great pains to keep their demonic forms secret. They are tricksters by nature, however, and the urge to frighten and spy on human beings is hard to resist.

This is just awesome:

I'd love to neck with any of the above women!

Creepy Critters.

It's Hallowe'ene'ene'en and I still have a ton of Yōkai to get through, so I thought I'd intersperse some of the various creepy crawlers, critters and creatures with the latest of my Junior High School kids' creations. The first of the kids' drawings is the eeriest (I gotta show this one to the school's psychiatrist) and I'll end with the cutest.

オゴメ (Ogome) looks like a screaming marble, she is also known as 姑獲鳥 (Ubumedori). It's the spirit of a woman that died giving birth, and she caries around with her the baby as well. She will ask passers-by to hold on to her baby for a sec, and the baby suddenly grows heavier and heavier in the poor victims hands, until it's so heavy the victim dies.

Remember that Tweety cartoon where he accidentally swallows the Jekyll/Hyde potion? That's what the キジムナー (Kijimuna=Okinawan Sprite) look like as portrayed by Mizuki, but they are usually represented as little boys with bright red hair. Some say that only children or the pure of heart can see the kijimunaa. They are known for playing harmless pranks yet can also be helpful though quick to change their minds. They enjoy fishing and eating fish. The only thing they fear is the octopus.

In my best Jamaican Reggae voice, "Oh ya man, it's a  じゃみ (Jya-mi). FF to the end or listen to this guy talk about cicada.

Dragon my ass here, I'll present 龍 or 竜 (Ryu or tatsu), like other creatures referred to as dragons, the Ryū is a large, fantastic, serpent-like being, and is closely related to other Oriental dragons such as the Chinese lóng and the Korean ryong. Japanese dragons share a close connection with water and their association is focused primarily on the sea.

 

Another Dragon-esque creature is the 出世螺 (Shusebora), who like Venus lives on a half-shell.

 

Wearing a pair of glasses that'd put Dame Edna to shame, にょいじさい (Nyoi-Jizai) is a Yōkai spirit that means "as one wishes, completely free and unconstrained."

 

"You like me, you really really like me!" proclaimed Sally Field after winning her Oscar for ノウマ (Nouma).

 

黒髪切 (Kuro Kami-kiri) is a big black bear-like thing that cuts your hair without your knowledge. 

If crows weren't scary enough in Japan as it is, wait until you meet やた烏 (Yata-Garasu) or Ghost Crows! The creature is a raven called 八咫烏 which is the bird of the sun goddess Amaterasu. The Yatagarasu appears in the Japanese ancient document called the Kojiki (古事記) where it was called upon to choke a beast attempting to devour the sun and as the protector to Emperor Jimmu. The three-legged version of the Yatagarasu is used as the emblem of the Japan Football Association today.

 

猿神 (Saru-Gami) is a kind of Ape-god that isn't similar to any simian I know of, it was a wicked monkey spirit which was defeated by a dog.

Dudley Moore lusted after Bo Derek in てん (Ten) but I don't think he'd be so quick to seduce this pile of fiery weasels (いたち).

 Well, that's 10 creatures, I'll try and post a few more tomorrow. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, thank goodness there's a typhoon in town to help everything run smoothly!