Yokai Night · Osaka actor print · Yotsuya Kaidan · Shunbaisai Hokuei, 1832
Oiwa's Lantern
Her face appears in a torn paper lantern.
The Work
An Osaka actor print: the murdered Oiwa's face appears in a torn paper lantern before her husband, Iemon.
Look Closer
A pale face glowing against black, Iemon reaching for his sword — a single shock from the stage, frozen in ink.
The Artist
Hokuei worked in Osaka, where actor prints — kamigata-e — had a bolder, more realistic flavor than Edo's.
The Story
The play, Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan by Tsuruya Nanboku, premiered in Edo in 1825 — one of Japan's most famous ghost stories.
Japan at the Time
Kabuki theaters often staged ghost plays in summer — a chill down the spine to forget the heat.
Culture & Values
The "lantern escape," where Oiwa bursts out of the lantern, was a famous stage trick audiences waited for.
Meanwhile, in the World
Around then, Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji was being published in Edo; Britain passed its Reform Act of 1832.
Afterward
Yotsuya Kaidan is still staged and filmed today, and actors still visit a shrine to pay respects to Oiwa before performing it.
Listen while you look
This work stays on screen for about ten minutes in the full hour of Yokai Night, with Oiwa's Paper Lantern and Yotsuya Rain At Midnight.
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