Oiwa (The Lantern Ghost), Gekko

In this hanging scroll, the lantern ghost Oiwa appears formless, fading into the dark background and obscured by her long messy hair. The story of the lantern ghost first appears in a 19th-century Japanese Kabuki play. In the story, Oiwa is betrayed and poisoned by her husband Iyemon and turns into a vengeful ghost who haunts her husband relentlessly. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Oiwa’s disfigured face appears before him. When the story of Oiwa was first performed in 1825, lanterns were already a motif associated with ghost stories. This motif was creatively employed by Kabuki actors, who played Oiwa emerging from a burning lantern. In Japan, ghost stories like this are often told at the height of summer heat in order to cause a terror-induced
cold sweat.

In this hanging scroll, the lantern ghost Oiwa appears formless, fading into the dark background and obscured by her long messy hair. The story of the lantern ghost first appears in a 19th-century Japanese Kabuki play. In the story, Oiwa is betrayed and poisoned by her husband Iyemon and turns into a vengeful ghost who haunts her husband relentlessly. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Oiwa’s disfigured face appears before him. When the story of Oiwa was first performed in 1825, lanterns were already a motif associated with ghost stories. This motif was creatively employed by Kabuki actors, who played Oiwa emerging from a burning lantern. In Japan, ghost stories like this are often told at the height of summer heat in order to cause a terror-induced cold sweat.

In this hanging scroll, lantern ghost Oiwa appears formless, engulfed in the dark background and surrounded by long scraggly hair. Her story appears in a preeminent Kabuki ghost play, Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan (The Tōkaidō Yotsuya Ghost Stories), written by Tsuruya Nanboku IV (1755-1829). In the story, betrayed and poisoned by her husband Iyemon, Oiwa turns into a vengeful ghost and haunts her husband relentlessly. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Oiwa’s disfigured face appears before him. The name of lantern ghost was probably informed by Botan dōrō (Peony Lantern, 1666), a fiction, which was adapted from a Chinese story Mudan dengji (Tales of Peony Lantern) and influenced the development of Japanese ghost tales. When the story of Oiwa was first performed in 1825, lanterns were already a motif associated with ghost stories. This motif was creatively employed by Kabuki actors, who played Oiwa emerging from a burning lantern. This performance became very popular and was staged throughout the 19th century. The peony lantern depicted in this painting would illuminate Oiwa’s haunting countenance on a darkened stage.