Yoshitoshi's Thirty-Six Ghosts - In this incredible series, Yoshitoshi illustrated thirty-six of his favorite tales from Japanese history and legend. From charming folk stories to bloody tales of revenge, the series is the work of the artist's maturity and Yoshitoshi explores the subjects with great subtlety and psychological perception. As interesting to Yoshitoshi as the ghosts and monsters, are the human beings to whom they appear. Yoshitoshi was immensely popular in the last years of his life and the ghost series was greeted with great enthusiasm and a rush to collect among the Japanese public.

Today, prints from Yoshitoshi's Thirty-six Ghosts series are some of the most highly sought after prints on the market. A wonderful area of collecting for the Yoshitoshi enthusiast.

Priest Raigo of Mii Temple Transformed by Wicked Thoughts into a Rat, No. 25 - Fantastic Yoshitoshi illustration of a favorite Japanese tale, and one of the best prints of his career. This amazing image depicts the Priest Raigo of Mii Temple after transforming into a rat. Through Raigo's prayers, a male heir was born to the Emperor Shirakawa, who promised Raigo anything he wanted in return. However, the priest requested a raised prayer platform only granted to warrior monks, so the emperor refused. The infuriated priest returned to Mii Temple where he starved himself and cursed the emperor. After dying, his vengeful spirit changed into thousands of rats that destroyed the sacred books of the temple. Yoshitoshi shows the priest as a vengeful, partly human rat, still wearing his priestly robes and surrounded by other gray rats tearing through the emperor’s treasures. A terrific image from this fascinating legend.

Artist - Yoshitoshi (1839 - 1892)

Image Size - 13" x 8 3/4" + margins as shown

Condition - This print with excellent color and detail as shown. Backed with old paper. Faint ink offsetting in right margin, a few faint creases. Please see photos for details. Nice overall.