Back to sweet sweet Japan! And we all know how bad I am with Japanese mythology, so let’s see if i can set this up and only be mostly, horrifically, wrong…
Our hero this week is a variety of Yokai, which is a Japanese Spirit. In contrast to most western cultures, Japaneses spirits are not usually dead people, sometimes they are demons, sometimes supernatural monsters, sometimes the misplaced consciousness of the living, and sometimes they are just freaking yokai deciding to take the shape of other yokai cause they can do that, and people like me will just have to deal with that!
Yokai are generally playful/mischevious, personality wise, sorta like a Japanese version of an english house spirit and they’re sorta famous for being weird assortments of various parts of creatures and inanimate objects, so we’re just going into descriptors
- He’s generally baby shaped sometimes larger than normal, sometimes not
- Has an abnormally large bald head
- Has one single giant eye in said abnormally large noggin
- Possesses a long red tongue
- Maybe has loooong scary claws?
- More often then not dressed sorta like a monk
- More often then not carries a pot or plate of tofu
- Will offer you tofu but unlike his close relative, the tofu boy, his fermented beans are generally not poisoned
- Sometimes helpful, sometimes a pain in the ass
- He’s Japanese!
So there you have it, as our beasts go, bald kid shapes are pretty easy, just stack a bunch of circles give it a giant eye and you have it do whatever you think will make our judge happy!
Speaking of…
It’s really hard to pick a favorite Hitotsume-Kozo. There are great things about all of them: the sumo pants and evil eye on entry #6 by Carol, I can picture entry #5 by itnet1 on a styrofoam bucket of freeze-dried ramen, the Godzilla scale, blinding sun, and single tooth on entry #4 by dan h, the anime-eyed, wilted flower carrying, bare-bottomed entry #3 by chip, … but I’m going to choose entry #1 by itnet1. The lovely ink hatching makes me think this is what a Hitotsume-Kozo would look like if R. Crumb decided to do a book on Yokai. The way the eye disc is sliding out of the over stretched eyelid, only to be caught safely by the bridge of the nose, creates a beautiful tension. And the whole thing crowned by a perfect caterpillar unibrow. Yep, all in all, a t-shirt worthy performance! -mike g
Thanks to all who drew! Know that judgement is now law and to the victor go the spoils! And don’t forget, you can always send your drawings of Hitotsume-Kozo in late, you won’t win a shirt but I’ll gladly post it for everyone’s enjoyment!
