Temple displays ghost painting for a single hour on specific day

Asahi Shimbun

10-07-2025

HIROSAKI, Aomori Prefecture—Why do ghosts float? It's likely thanks to painter Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795) whose spectral work is exhibited on one day each year at Kudoji temple here.
The mid-Edo Period (1603-1867) artist is said to have been the first to depict a 'ghost without legs' in his pieces, a decision that has since grown into the default mental image for many.
Temple visitors only have an hour to view 'Kenpon Bokuga Tansai Hangonko no Zu' (Ink drawing on silk canvas with light coloring, ghost appearing from incense). Since last year, ghost-themed paintings by local artists are also part of the event.
Okyo's painting measures 99.3 centimeters long and 27 cm wide. It was donated to the temple in 1784 by Morioka Shuzen Motonori (1735-1785), Hirosaki Domain's chief retainer.
Morioka had commissioned the work to memorialize the women in his life after losing his wife and concubines.
The ghost in the painting appears sad but has a beautiful and gentle face.
According to Kosho Suto, the temple's chief priest, it is not clear when the temple began to share the painting with the public, but the tradition was started 60 to 70 years ago by the chief priest two generations before himself.
A city investigation in 2021 officially confirmed that the ghost painting is Okyo's original work.
The piece is displayed each year on May 18 of the lunar calendar, and this year it fell on June 13.
The additional pieces that join Okyo's are part of a new project born from last year marking the 240th anniversary of the painting's donation.
Suto started the project to commission contemporary artists to create new ghost paintings for the one-day affair, such as local artist Sen-An's piece that was exhibited last year.
'Reiwa Hangonko no Zu' is this year's addition and was created by Chihiro Ishizuka, a manga artist living in Hirosaki who is known for his manga 'Flying Witch.'
Ishizuka's work depicts a young woman looking back and smiling in the motif of "mandoe," a Buddhist event held during the Bon festival.
The manga artist's ghost is garbed in blue and the lower half of her body is transparent, as in Okyo's work.
When crafting his own take on the theme, Ishizuka said he tried to imagine the ghostly woman's feelings after hearing how Okyo's painting came to be from the chief priest.
The eyes of Ishizuka's ghost are also sad but gentle.
'I had an image of ghost paintings as something scary, but I tried to express the feeling of wanting to see this person again,' said Ishizuka, who spent a great deal of time focusing on how to depict his subject's eyes.
All three ghost paintings were displayed in the temple's main hall on June 13, and about 200 visitors took turns viewing them.
Kentaro Ichinohe, 44, a self-employed man from Tsuruta, Aomori Prefecture, said, 'Okyo's work has a lonely feeling. Ishizuka's work shows the sadness of a woman, while Sen-An's work seems to have been painted all at once.'
Suto said that 'preserving past cultural assets and contemporary art and culture for future generations is one of the important roles' of the temple.
'I hope that people who are interested in art and artistic pursuits will come into contact (with the ghost paintings),' he said.