Shaping Darkness In Hyakki Yagyo Emaki

In Japanese culture, the yokai, the numinous creatures inhabiting the other world and, sometimes, the boundary between our world and the other, are obvious manifestations of the feeling of fear, "translated" into text and image. Among the numerous emaki in which the yokai appear, there is a specific type, called hyakki yagyo (the night parade of one hundred demons), where all sorts and sizes of monsters flock together to enjoy themselves at night, but, in the end, are scattered away by the first beams of light or by the mysterious darani no hi, the fire produced by a powerful magical invocation, used in the Buddhist sect Shingon. The nexus of this emakimono is their great number, hyakki, (one hundred demons being a generic term which encompasses a large variety of yokai and oni) as well as the night-the very time when darkness becomes flesh and blood and starts marching on the streets.