This painting is inspired by one of the most famous Japanese folklore, 'The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons’. It refers to a parade of thousands of supernatural creatures known as yōkai that march through the streets of Japan at night.
Back then, when I was a little kid, I was always amazed and obsessed by the whimsy of the story and the characters. And I always wanted to create my version of 'The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. However, I could not paint this amount of characters in a night setting due to the fact that night scenes are often more challenging in terms of lighting. So I only ended up drawing individual characters now and then without putting them into one piece, which is a shame. But this year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give it a try, no matter how it would turn out. And luckily, it turned out much better than I expected! So I guess sometimes, we just need to give things a go without thinking too much, and we may end up having something extraordinary.
The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. Image source: Wikipdedia.
In this painting, I imagine all these creatures marching on the streets to go to a night market. (Although, it never told why they are gathering on the streets in the original story.) On the telephone booth, it says 'Enjoy the biggest night market of the year on 14th March.' (14th March was the date when I took the photo of this place in Hobart.) And the boy character was overwhelmed by a large number of strange creatures on the street and hiding behind the telephone booth.
This is a goldfish with butterfly wings and she can fly. She is wearing a little human face mask in disguise to avoid the attention of the fisherman walking in front of her.
The blue fish wearing a kimono is a fisherman who always tries to catch rare fish, like the flying goldfish behind him.
The sparrow in a pink kimono is singing karaoke on a floating Japanese wind chime. And the spirit on the top of the telephone booth is singing along with her.
The fox in the red dress is a gambler which is suggested by the poker patterns on her fan. And she has two tails. (Nine-tailed foxes often appear in some Chinse and Japanese folktales. The number of the tails indicates the level of wisdom and magical prowess. Nine-tailed foxes are considered especially powerful.)
The cat in a medium grey suit finished his 9 to 5 accounting job tonight. And he approaches the cat lady to initiate a chat. Perhaps he is going to ask her for a date.
The phone on the left indicates the time of the night.
The platypus in a mauve suit is the supervisor/manager of the cat in their company. She hides her face behind her fan as she does not want her subordinate to find out she is in the parade.
The lamp with the two legs jumping and walking in front of the platypus is based on the lamps that I use at the market and I got them from IKEA. I love these cute lamps and enjoy bringing day-to-day objects to my paintings.
The octopus and the traffic light are drinking sake wine together. The redness of the octopus is not because he is cooked. It is because he is having an Asian flush. The traffic light is so drunk that all the colours are flashing at the same time while he dances.