Yokai Ghosts: By the Great Masters of Japanese Woodblock Printing

For artists, tattooers, and collectors studying yokai iconography, Yokai Ghosts: By the Great Masters of Japanese Woodblock Printing is more than a beautiful object. It’s a serious reference for how spirits, shapeshifters, and supernatural folklore were pictured—expression, silhouette, and dramatic detail that still informs Japanese horror and visual storytelling today.

Yokai and ghosts are a major thread in Japanese culture—sometimes terrifying, sometimes playful, often mischievous. In woodblock prints, they appear as malevolent spirits searching for peace, or as shapeshifters who test humans with wisdom, cruelty, and trickery.

This hardcover edition gathers 150 striking images by masters such as Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro and others. Each chapter focuses on a specific spirit or type, making it easy to study variations: how features are exaggerated, how atmosphere is built, and how a figure “reads” at a glance.

Inside you’ll find famous ghost tales and images—like Oiwa and Okiku—alongside broader yokai themes that connect directly to the origins of manga, horror films, and modern supernatural design.

• Use it to study: ghost faces, distorted forms, dramatic effects, and narrative staging
• Build vocabulary: recurring archetypes and how different artists interpret them
• Best for: artists and tattooers who want stronger supernatural reference beyond modern remixes

Edition features: elegant silk-coated hardcover with colored edges and closing straps.

Book details

• Title: Yokai Ghosts: By the Great Masters of Japanese Woodblock Printing
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Pages: 192
• Size: 215 × 140 × 27 mm (8.5 × 5.5 × 1.1 in)