Title: A Dishevelled and Ghostly Yurei Standing atop Flames, Circa 1830-1870. A Yurei-zu Silk Painting of an Undead Spirit, Likely an Onryo. Previously Owned by Former Class A War Criminal Sasakawa Ryoichi
Author: Signed Kado, Possibly Kida Kado
Condition: Very Good
A Late Edo to Early Meiji Period, 19th century silk painting of a ghostly yurei, standing atop flames. The spirit is a disheveled and unkempt figure, with messy hair, her funeral kimono loosened and displaying an emaciated figure. Most of all, her heavily eyes, despite being barely open, are piercing and conveying a feeling of misery.
Given the emaciated and ghastly appearance of the yurei, she is likely an onryo, the spirit of a person who died with a grudge or hatred and was feared by people as bringing disaster through possession.
Yūrei-zu are a genre of Japanese art consisting of painted or woodblock print images of ghosts, demons and other supernatural beings. Paintings such as these reached their peak popularity by the mid to late 19th century.
The painting has been signed Kado (華堂), but there are very few artists of the Meiji or Era Period with that last name, so it is possible that the artist is in fact the Late Edo and Early Meiji Artist Kida Kado 木田華堂 (1802-1879).
There is a prior ownership inscription for Sasakawa Ryoichi (1899-1995), the Japanese businessman, far-right politician of the Showa Era, and former Class A War Criminal. During the 1930s and throughout the Second World War, he was actively supporting the Japanese war effort both financially and through politics, on top of creating his own paramilitary units. He organized the Nationalist Mass Party in 1931, became its president and was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1942 Imperial Rule Assistance Election. After Japan’s defeat he was accused of war crimes and imprisoned for several years, before being released due to a mixture of factors. Post-release, he became financially successful once more in different business ventures and supported anti-communist activities and organizations. In 1951, he founded The Nippon Foundation, for which he received several honors. He passed away in 1995, aged 96.
The painting has been neatly mounted onto a brocade decorated kakejiku (hanging scroll), with jikusaki (knobs). There is a wooden box to accompany it, preserving the scroll.
One painting mounted on a kakejiku (hanging scroll), 184 x 46 cm full size, 103 x 32 cm main painting
This painting is in very good shape, with only minimal soiling and spotting to the background of the main composition.