The Ghost of Oyuki
The Ghost of Oyuki
 |
| Artist |
Maruyama Okyo |
|---|
| Year |
1750 |
|---|
| Type |
Ink on silk |
|---|
The Ghost of Oyuki (お雪の幻, Oyuki no maboroshi) is a painting of a female yūrei, (a traditional Japanese ghost), by Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), founder of the Maruyama-Shijō school of painting.
According to an inscription on the painting, Okyo had a mistress in the Tominaga Geisha house. She died young and Okyo mourned her death. One night her spirit came to him in a dream, and unable to get her image out of his head he painted this portrait. This is one of the earliest paintings of a yūrei with the basic late-Edo period ghost characteristics: disheveled hair, white or pale blue robe, limp hands, nearly transparent, lack of lower body.
References
- Iwasaka, Michiko and Toelken, Barre. Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experiences in Japanese Death Legends, Utah State University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-87421-179-4
