I made a series of seven collages about the tales of Japanese demons, Yokai - especially the ghost stories about women demons and ghosts. I used photographs that found in National Geographic magazines to create these collages.
More info: Etsy
Yamauba - Mountain Witch - Yamauba is the haggard mountain witch that transforms herself into a beautiful young woman who lures hunters and travellers with her beauty and singing. When the men are just close enough she opens her huge cave-like mouth to devour them.
Yuki-Onna - Snow Woman - Yuki-Onna (“snow woman”) glides across the cold Japanese mountains during the coldest parts of winter. She is hauntingly beautiful with her jet-black hair and snow-white kimono. She attracts lost travelers from whom she sucks their life force, leaving them dead and frozen in the snow.
Teke Teke -Teke Teke is a relatively recent urban legend of the angry spirit of a schoolgirl who was cut in half by an oncoming train. She walks on her hands with her upper torso scratching maniacally on the ground beneath her, making a terrifying ‘teke teke’ sound.
Jorogumo - Jorogumo take the form of ancient spiders. These ghosts are hungry for the flesh of young, handsome men looking for love. Jorogumo transform themselves into the forms of beautiful women, and lure men to their home where the Jorogumo ensnare and feast upon their bodies.
Rokurokubi - Rokurokubi are average women by day but by night, their necks stretch out to alarming lengths, terrorizing neighbors and licking up oil from oil lamps. They are not known to be particularly dangerous, but more of a nuisance to the menfolk of their town.
Oiwa - Oiwa was married to an unfaithful and dishonest samurai named Iemon during the Edo Period. Iemon attempts to poison Oiwa but rather than killing her, leaves Oiwa’s face terribly disfigured. Out of shame and a broken heart, Oiwa kills herself and haunts Iemon to the end of his miserable life.
Uji no hashihime - A high-ranking court lady submerges herself in the Kawase river in Uji to invoke the Kami of Kifune to exact revenge on her lover. She twists her hair into five long horns and paints her face red becoming the oni of Japanese folklore. Consumed by jealousy she kills her lover and her lover’s family in a violent rampage.
