This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is again inspired by Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yakō.
The bake-neko is a giant ghost-cat. According to The Obakemono Project, "...bake-neko could exceed normal cats in size by orders of magnitude, reaching their enormous arms in through doors looking for human prey like an average feline pawing around in a mousehole...."
Her Odd Materials No. 16
Acrylic on a torn-out portion of an illustration from St. Nicholas magazine, August 1920, ~4"x5"
Nice! That original drawing has some pretty wonky perspective, but maybe that just makes the resulting "appropriation" spookier!
ReplyDelete(Are you planning to get all of your beasts from Japan?)
Thanks, Isaac. I'm pretty wonky myself so I felt right at home in that village. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI am kind of thinking of doing all Japanese beasts (I know so little about them, it would be fun to do the research) but I'm not sure I can find them for all of the letters-- we'll see.
Nice work! Reminds me of Neko-Basu from Totoro.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't think you'd be able to find Japanese creatures for every English letter.
Thanks, Lupi. No, it's not looking good for all the letters. :-(
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could do a pan-Asian thing, instead of just Japan? There are probably Chinese beasts that start with q and x.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeletePerfect time for the fast-approaching Witching Hour.
ReplyDelete