Ghosts, demons and the supernatural are omnipresent in storytelling, folk traditions and religion throughout Japanese history. From the Buddhist belief in which all deceased souls become spirits that regularly return to their ancestral homes, to ancient Shinto nature worship, where spirits are believed to pervade all aspects of life. In Shinto not only humans and animals but also the wind, sun, moon, water, mountains and trees, and even inanimate daily objects such as lanterns, plates, umbrellas and cooking pots – Japanese culture has a deeply ingrained association with the supernatural.
Communication with the spiritual world is a principal theme of the performing arts in Japan. Kagura, one of the earliest forms of Japanese theatre, is a Shinto dance performance, accompanied by wind and drum instruments, that acts out Japan’s origin stories by celebrating the gods and spirits. During the fourteenth century, these spiritual traditions were enhanced with complex narratives and refined acting styles to establish a new form of theatre known as Noh. Noh featured elaborate costumes and evocative masks that represented a pantheon of ghosts and supernatural beings. To act out moral dilemmas between the living and spiritual realms, Noh performers moved in a manner that suggested levitation while chanting in wavering voices. From the early Edo period during the seventeenth century, a new form of popular theatre for the general masses named Kabuki featured stories of bravery, bravado and treachery. Some of the most popular Kabuki performances concerned love, betrayal, murder and ghostly reprisal, were based on real events that had become popular urban folklore and intrigued the scandal-loving middle classes. It is these popular stories that later became some of the dynamic subjects of ukiyo-e nishiki-e woodblock prints during the nineteenth century.
A favourite parlour game of the Edo period was Hyaku Monogatari Kaidankai (One Hundred Ghostly Stories Get-together) where a group of people would gather after dark and tell each other ghost stories. There are several versions of the game, but the simplest would start in a room lit by 100 andon (paper lamps). As each story was completed, one lamp was blown out. It was said that when the final tale was completed and the last lamp was extinguished, a supernatural phenomenon would occur, in which, of course, all present were eager to participate. Another version of the game involved viewing one’s own refection in a mirror as the lighting gradually dimmed. Fans of the game would keenly investigate regional folklore and ghoulish encounters for new stories, and in 1677 the first collection of ghost stories was published: Shokoku hyaku monogatari (One Hundred Tales from Many Countries), also including stories from China. Since then, ghost stories have been collected and depicted in ukiyo-e prints, books of ghost tales, children’s card games and, in the twentieth century, manga comic books, cartoon shows, TV dramas and films.
THE OKAZAKI CAT DEMON
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the most celebrated artists of cat prints. In Scene from a Ghost Story: The Okazaki Cat Demon, c.1847, Kuniyoshi combines his mastery of supernatural and cat imagery to create a spine-chilling series of paranormal scenes along the Tokaido Road between Edo and Kyoto. At the Muryō-ji Temple in Okazaki, a cat disguised as an old woman kidnaps passersby, most notably killing a local woman named Okura and possesses her body. Investigating the incident is the hero of the story Inabanosuke (centre), who takes refuge at the temple with a protective Buddhist talisman in hand and the brave samurai Teranishi Kanshin (left) disguised as an itinerant monk. Two apparitions of the old woman (right) proceed the spirit’s transformation back into an enormous cat, which crashes through the temple walls to attack its adversaries.
‘The monster’s enormous head flies at its attackers, baring its sharp teeth and fangs with bulging yellow eyes and a hideous grimace. Breath streams from its open mouth and hair flies wildly about its horned head’ – Wayne Crothers
THE GHOST OF OIWA
The main character of the ghost story ‘Yostsuya Kaidan’ (The ghost story of Yotsuya) is the virtuous Oiwa. She is married to Tamiya Iyemon, a struggling samurai who has become an umbrella maker. While Oiwa is recovering from childbirth, Iyemon falls in love with his young neighbour, Oume, whose father administers a poison disguised as a childbirth recovery potion for Oiwa. The potion awfully disfigures her and causes her hair to fall out. Iyemon is disgusted, wants a divorce and intentionally torments Oiwa in the hope she will leave, but in despair, Oiwa kills herself instead. Iyemon then kills Oiwa’s loyal servant Kohei, nails both their bodies to either side of a plank and disposes of them in Yotsuya canal in central Edo.
Iyemon proceeds to marry Oume, but on their wedding day, when he lifts her white silk hood, a grotesque apparition of Oiwa appears. In shock, Iyemon strikes her down with his sword, accidentally killing his new wife. He rushes away in horror and takes refuge in a temple. In the middle of the night, Oiwa’s horrifically deformed face and body appear through an old torn lantern, as is depicted in the print Onoe Kikugoro III as the ghost of Oiwa in the play Yotsuya Kaidan 1836 (Bequest of Judith Anne Gardiner, 2022) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. In a fit of madness and torment, Iyemon returns to Yotsuya canal where the ghastly corpses he nailed to the plank continue to float. Driven to the edge of sanity, Iyemon takes his own life.
THE GHOST OF KOHADA KOHEIJI
Kohada Koheiji is one of the few male ghosts to become popular during the Edo period. Koheiji was a struggling kabuki actor who, due to lack of talent, was only ever cast in the role of a ghost. He was deeply in love with his wife Otsuka, but she was embarrassed by her husband’s career and switched her affections to Koheiji’s fellow actor Adachi Sakurō. While on a performance tour in the Fukushima region, Koheiji is tortured and killed by Sakurō and his accomplice Gensaibō as Otsuka looks on. Afterwards, they dump his body in Asaka swamp.
Koheiji rises from the swamp and returns to Edo (modern day Tokyo) as a real ghost with only one purpose. After many years’ practice on the stage, he is very skilled in his new form and uses every trick he knows to terrorise the devious couple. In Bandō Hikosaburō IV in a quick-change double role as Kobotoke Koheiji and his wife (Nyōbō) Otsuru 1840 by Utagawa Kunisada, we share Otsuka’s terror as she wakes to see the apparition of Koheiji, with his ghoulish smile and dishevelled hair, slowly approach her mosquito net and peer down with vengeful intent. It is believed that Koheiji haunted the couple relentlessly until they eventually took their own lives.
SHUTEN-DOJI: THE DEMON OF MT OE
The magnificent triptych Shuten-doji with his head severed attacks Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu and his retainers 1858, (Purchased, NGV Supporters of Asian Art) by Utagawa Yoshitsuya depicts the legendary tale of the Demon of Oeyama, the terrifying Shuten-doji, who kidnaps young women and holds them hostage in his lair on Mt Oe, near Kyoto. The great warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu (Raiko) and his men travel to the demon’s hideout, swords drawn. After lulling the demon into a drunken stupor, they attack, cutting off its enormous head. The demon then flies at its attackers, baring its sharp teeth and fangs with bulging yellow eyes and a hideous grimace. Breath streams from its open mouth and its hair flies wildly about. Raiko (left) braces himself on one knee and draws his sword above his head. The warrior behind him thrusts his iron club at Shuten-doji’s face, while the three samurai on the right brandish swords. In the upper left, several of Shuten-doji’s horned red and blue minions attempt to escape their fate by climbing a thick red pillar. The dynamic energy and drama of this composition identify this print as one of the most quintessential images of the supernatural in the NGV Collection.
THE SKELETON SPECTRE CONJURED BY PRINCESS TAKIYASHA
In the historically famous scene Mitsukuni defying the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha, c.1844, also by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Purchased with funds donated by Baillieu Myer AC and Sarah Myer), we see Princess Takiyasha (left) – the daughter of provincial warlord, Taira no Masakado of Sōma, who attempted to set up an ‘Eastern Court’ in Shimōsa Province in a challenge to the emperor in Heian-kyō (Kyoto). The rebellion was put down in the year 939 and Masakado was defeated, then Utagawa Kuniyoshi Mitsukuni defying the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha c. 1844. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Baillieu Myer AC and Sarah Myer, 2022 decapitated. Takiyasha continued living in the ruined shōen (rural manor-house) of the Sōma clan, her father’s former residence.
In the work, noble imperial retainer Taro Mitsukuni (centre left) arrives at the Masakado manor to quell ongoing resistance from Princess Takiyasha. Upon his arrival, Mitsukuni is challenged by Takiyasha’s villainous assistant Araimaru (centre right) as she casts a spell from a handscroll of magic, summoning a giant skeleton. The ghostly spectre rises out of a dark
void, its bony fingers crashing through the tattered palace blinds beset to kill the brave samurai Mitsukuni.
Wayne Crothers is NGV Senior Curator, Asian Art.
The NGV warmly thanks all those who helped acquire these works for the Collection.
This essay was first published in NGV Magazine | Issue 60 Sep-Oct 2026.