There’s a Chinese legend about a man, Zhong Kui, who failed the examinations to become a scholar-official and subsequently took his life. The emperor, upon hearing of this tragedy, had Zhong Kui buried with high honors, therefore securing his protection after death as a spirit guardian who would protect the country from supernatural forces.
Shoki

Shōki, the Demon Queller, c. 1745

Okumura Masanobu

In Japan, Zhong Kui was called Shōki the Demon Queller and depicted in prints as a Chinese official dressed in a dark robe, boots, and cap, wielding the sword he uses to subdue demons. A popular subject, his image was often displayed in homes and on banners in the belief that it helped to ward off disease.
Shoki 2

May: Shōki, the Demon Queller Riding on a Tiger, Subjugating Goblins, from the series “Of the Twelve Months: the Fifth (Jūnikagetsu no uchi: gogatsu)”, 1887.

Kawanabe Kyōsai

Supernatural beings have always been common features in Japanese legends, prints, and Kabuki theater. The prints on view in this exhibition, all from our celebrated Clarence Buckingham collection, capture common Japanese folk tales as well as their Kabuki adaptations from the early 18th-century to the last years of the 19th century, offering distinct insight into the nature of these beloved stories and characters.
Shunsho Skeleton

The actors Ichikawa Danjurō V as a skeleton, spirit of the renegade monk Seigen (left), and Iwai Hanshirō IV as Princess Sakura (right), in the joruri “Sono Omokage Matsu ni Sakura (Vestiges of Pine and Cherry),” from part two of the play “Edo no Hana Mimasu Soga (Flower of Edo: An Ichikawa Soga),” performed at the Nakamura Theater from the first day of the second month, 1783, 1783.

Katsukawa Shunshō

Amid the performances depicted in these prints are Kaidan mono, or Kabuki ghost plays. Ghost plays were known to feature dramatic special effects: quick costume changes in moments when an actor transformed into a ghost or the use of trap doors and flying apparatuses to terrify and excite the audience. Kaidan mono were most often put on in the heat of summer, the traditional time for telling ghost stories. Tales were meant to give the audience a chill. It’s our hope that this summer exhibition of these astonishing prints brings visitors a chill of their own.
A color woodblock print of a ghostly skeletal figure, pulling down a shear blue cloth, sticks its head out from the darkness. From the left, wisps of orange and black, escape.
Kohada Koheiji, from the series “One Hundred Ghost Tales (Hyaku monogatari)”, c. 1831
Katsushika Hokusai

Ghosts and Demons in Japanese Prints is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago.

Image info: Kohada Koheiji, from the series “One Hundred Ghost Tales (Hyaku monogatari)”, c. 1831
Katsushika Hokusai

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Tags: Chicago, Ghosts and Demons in Japanese Prints, Ichikawa Danjurō V, Iwai Hanshirō IV, Janice Katz, Kaidan mono, Katsukawa Shunshō, Katsushika Hokusai, Kawanabe Kyōsai, Loop, Okumura Masanobu, Shōki, Shoki 2, The Art Institute of Chicago, Zhong Kui