Category: myths

Kaneko Tomiyuki

Paintings by Kaneko Tomiyuki

Japanese artist Kaneko Tomiyuki was born in Saitama prefecture, 1978. Since childhood, he has been particularly interested in Japanese folklore and the spiritual world. His interest has led him to study in the Tohoku prefecture, which was the birthplace of “Legends of Tono”. As an undergraduate student he studied Japanese style painting in Tohoku University of Art & Design and graduated the postgraduate of the same university in 2009. Even after he finished studying, he continues to “substantiate” mythological creatures such as: yokai, spirits and the gods by painting.

Kaneko believes that the stratum of unconsciousness called the “Manas-vijnana” in Sanskrit (the seventh stratum of the eight within the world of Yogacara) is the origin of “evil” in everyday life, beginning with Yokais and many other evil creatures. Compared to the animalistic nature of the eighth stratum, “Alaya-vijinana”, “Manas-vijinana” is the unique feature of human and the unconscious emotion of attachment. It is always around us and constantly puts us into trickery. However, this unconscious emotion of attatchment is what makes humans human. The human’s strength to struggle is where all art is created, and by intercrossing with localized imagination it has formed as the yokai.

The Messenger of Agartha

Photographer Unknown, (The Messenger of Agartha)

One of the most famous underground cities is the city of Agartha, a legendary city that is supposed to be in the centre of the Earth, the Earth’s Core.  Central Asia is the origin of those legends and the race inhabiting this underground realm was called the Agharti. Theosophists refer to Agartha as a vast complex of caves and an underground network supposedly made by man.

Image reblogged with thanks to https://captain-donut.tumblr.com/

The Attack!

Artist Unknown, (The Attack!)

The kraken is a enormous mythical cephalopod-like sea monster in Scandinavian folklore. According to Norse sagas, the kraken terrorized sailors off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. It has been a staple of superstitions and legends through the centuries, becoming a common ocean-dwelling monster in fictional works.

The word ‘kraken’ comes from the Swedish and Norwegian language, the definite form of the word “krake’ denoting an unhealthy animal or smoething twisted. ‘Krake’ (plural) and ‘kraken’ (singular) in modern German means ‘octopus’. ‘Kraken is also an old euphemism in Swedish for whales, a word once believed that would summon whales.

The Bone Shadows

Illustration from Werewolf: The Forsaken, Second Edition

The Bone Shadows (First Tongue: Hirfathra Hissu)

The Bone Shadow is a hermit and shaman, a hunter of things that cannot be slain with mere fang and claw alone. They trap ghosts and bind spirits, they cast out angels and speak the language of the dead. They have a reputation for strangeness, but it’s a product of their greater understanding of Shadow. Spirits and other ephemeral beings obey bizarre laws and compulsions, and to the Bone Shadows these things are natural, instinctive.

Taboos have power, in the keeping and the breaking, and the Bone Shadows know how to call on that power. While Ithaeur of all tribes can command and use spirits, the Bone Shadows do more than command. They curate, managing the boundary of worlds in the name of Father Wolf, seeking to understand the secrets beyond the visible in the name of their tribal totem. They seek out that which is unknown, study and catalogue and bind it away or cast it out.

Benjamin West

Benjamin West, “The Death of Hyacinth”, 1771, Oil on Canvas, 229.87 x 190.5 cm, Swarthmore College

A popular mythological subject for classical painters, the story goes pretty much like this:  Apollo and his current boyfriend, Hyacinthus, were out frolicking, throwing a discus back and forth.  Apollo threw the thing one last time and his young beau ran to make the catch but missed and was, instead, hit by the discus and killed.  Where Hyacinthus’ blood fell, a flower sprang up and was watered by Apollo’s tears.

By any standard, Benjamin West enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist. This self-taught colonial painter settled in London during the golden age of English portraiture and not only made a name for himself, but became the king’s favorite.

He served as president of the Royal Academy of Arts – the titular head of the English art establishment – for 27 years during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when there were plenty of native-born artists worthy of the honor.

When he died in 1820 at the age of 81, West was the best-known artist in the English-speaking world. He has remained a fixture of American art history, even though he left the colonies in 1760 and, except for several years in Italy, lived the rest of his life in England.

Faoladh

Photographer Unknown, (Faoladh: Still Here But Now with iPhones)

“Laignech Fáelad, that is, he was the man that used to shift into fáelad, i.e. wolf-shapes. He and his offspring after him used to go, whenever they pleased, into the shapes of the wolves, and, after the custom of wolves, kill the herds. Wherefore he was called Laignech Fáelad, for he was the first of them to go into a wolf-shape.” – Coir Anmann, 215

Djinn

Artists Unknown, Djinn

According to pre-Islamic lore, the djinn are born of smokeless fire (which in modern terms could be plasma). They live very long lives but they are not immortal.  According to some accounts, they live with other supernatural beings in the Kaf, a mythical range of emerald mountains that encircles the Earth.  In modern terms, they live in a parallel dimension.

The djinn like to roam the deserts and wilderness and inhabit caves. They are usually invisible, but have the power to shape-shift to any form, be it insect, animal, human, or entity. They have long been regarded as malicious and dangerous, capable of bringing bad luck, illness, disaster and death. Even when granting favors, they have a trickster nature and can twist events for the worse.

Though the djinn can be conjured in magical rites, they are difficult to control. One individual said to have complete power over the djinn was the legendary Biblical King Solomon. God gave Solomon a copper and iron magic ring that enabled him to subdue djinn, and which protected him from their powers. In some accounts, the ring was inscribed with a pentacle, and in other accounts it was set with a gem, probably a diamond, that had a living force of its own. With the ring, Solomon branded the necks of the djinn as his slaves and set them to working building the first Temple of Jerusalem and even the entire city of Jerusalem.

Koshchei the Deathless

Artist Unknown, “Koshchei the Deathless: The Immortal Villian”, Illustration, 1901

His name Koshchei originates from the Slavic word for “bone” and it indicates that Koshchei is bony or skinny in his form. Myths of Koshchei are mostly found in East Slavic lands and scholars there see him as an interpretation of a Slavic god of Death, or a frost sorcerer that has the ability to bring death and frost to anyone that opposes him.

In modern approach on the subject some scholars don’t see him just as a villain but as a force of nature, in other words not necessary that he is evil. Still, in various Russian myths Koshchei is seen as a powerful frost sorcerer, with cunning mind and not so good intentions. In few different fairy tales he turns people into a walnut, or even turns entire kingdoms into stone so folk legends still see him as an evil character.