First lines of "Kwaidan"

"More than seven hundred years ago, at Dan-no-ura, in the Straights of Shimonoseki, was fought the last battle of the long context between the Heike, or Taira clan, and the Genji, or Minamoto clan."

- Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.

As a westerner, I find Japanese folklore culture mesmerizing, moving, and deeply weird. The stories in Kwaidan are timeless but so unique to the Japanese islands.

(I'm also reading the collected stories of Akutagawa Ryunosuke, which builds on this weirdness with modernistic stylistic touches. More later, but his "Hell Screen" is one of the best stories I've ever read.)

Yesterday's Drawing

Here's a fun picture I drew over ten years ago and inked last week. I love her angular face and the big black blob of a coat.