Every August, as Japanese spirits return en masse from the otherworld, Tokyo’s Zenshoan temple exhibits a spine-chilling collection of 19th-century ghost scroll paintings. Here are a few. (Click the “+” under each image to enlarge.)
Ghost [+] // Sea Monster [+]
“Ghost” by Iijima Koga is a portrait of a floating, kimono-clad female apparition with all the ghastly physical features you hope to find in an undead spirit — bony hands, a head of stringy hair, and a pained grimace revealing a mouth full of black teeth. “Sea Monster” by Utagawa Hoen depicts an umi-bozu lurking near a boat anchored at shore, with the moon located precisely where the monster’s mouth should be.
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The Ghost of a Blind Female Street Singer [+]
Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Ghost of a Blind Female Street Singer” portrays the restless spirit of a street performer, one white unseeing eye wide open, carrying a shamisen […]

Original post by Edo