Sarayashiki (The House of Broken Plates), from the series One Hundred Ghost Tales

Object Details

• Artist

  Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)

• Label

  The five ghosts from the published designs of a series titled One Hundred Ghost Tales (Hyaku monogatari) reflect an Edo custom of telling ghost tales in the dark. The ghosts are among the eeriest of Hokusai's commercially published prints, and they express Hokusai's interest in imagining the supernatural world, which began in his youth with a print of a haunted house. Here, a woman's head with a serpentine neck made up of a stack of dishes represents the ghost of Okiku, whose master threw her into a well because she had broken his favorite dish. At night the sound of smashing porcelain and a voice counting "one, two, three…" emanated from the well.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Anne van Biema Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Katsushika, Hokusai

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Art, Ghost, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Anne van Biema collection, Ukiyo-e

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints