Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Happy Monsters

Spring is coming! Allegedly! Because in Calgary snow can happen as late as May or even later. These happy monsters are enjoying some cherry blossom viewing and a delicious picnic lunch. Each creature is a figure from Japanese folklore

And here is the annotated version:

White circles: 
Kasa-obake: One-eyed, one-legged umbrella spirit
Chochinobake: One-eyed, tongue-protruding lantern spirit
3 Hitotsume-kozo: One-eyed bald boy
4 Tanuki: Shape-shifting raccoon dog that enjoys sake
5 Kappa: Reptilian water spirit with monk's tonsure that loves cucumbers
6 Rokurokubi: Humanoid spirit with a stretchy, serpentine neck
7 Oni: Hairy, ogre-like demon with horns, often in tiger-skin loincloth
8 Bunbuku Chagama: A tanuki that shape-shifts into a tea kettle to help a poor man

Brown circles:
Mikan: Little easy-to-peel Japanese oranges
2 Kibi dango: Dumplings made from rice flour
3 Onigiri: Rice balls
4 Kappamaki: Cucumber sushi. Named for the Kappa's love of them.
5 Inarizushi: Pouch of fried tofu filled with vinegared rice 
6 Anpan: Bread filled with sweet red bean paste
7 Onigiri II: Differently shaped!
8 Strawberry: Sweet treat for after lunch

Sketch!
Thumbnail!

Bonus: Some adorable stickers I found in a Japanese bookstore in Seattle featuring some of the same folklore critters:

-- Julia

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Awesome piece Julia!

Great explanations as well :D