Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

In the last week, I've thumbnailed the 56 page story and rough pencilled 33 pages. I hope to finish the pencil roughs by the end of next week. I'm going through the pencils fairly quickly because I'm want to do most of the work with the watercolors. Also, I'm using smaller art boards and fewer panels per page. I'm more comfortable painting on the smaller size, and the fewer panels would allow me to spotlight the painting.

I must say that I am really enjoying the story so far. It has a lot of humor as well as a lot of action. Usagi goes through a wide range of emotions.

There's also a lot of neat monsters, many creatures from folklore, but a lot of them are made up--like the tentacles, but I had to have that. Speaking of Japanese mythology, does anyone know the name of that hopping foot with the big eyeball?.

I want to post a few panels from this, probably in my Live Journal because I know how to post pictures there.

Sounds awesome! I can't wait for this. I'm a big fan of the watercolored stories.

Stan Sakai wrote:Speaking of Japanese mythology, does anyone know the name of that hopping foot with the big eyeball?.

Is that the creature that looks like an umbrella? I think it's called Kasa-Obake.

Thanks for the update Stan, I'm really looking forward to this.

BTW, I would highly recommend these movies to Yokai fans:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164402/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200301/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202627/

You can get a box set with all three movies from Amazon.com for about $10

Mayhem wrote:

Stan Sakai wrote:Speaking of Japanese mythology, does anyone know the name of that hopping foot with the big eyeball?.

Is that the creature that looks like an umbrella? I think it's called Kasa-Obake.

or Karakasa

Stan, I'm usually uncomfortable asking for details on a new story, but will Nurikabe have a cameo? He has to be one of the most hilarious yokai of all time. (Essentially, he's a giant invisible wall that obstructs your path. Otherwise, he's completely harmless.)

Mayhem wrote:

Stan Sakai wrote:Speaking of Japanese mythology, does anyone know the name of that hopping foot with the big eyeball?.

Is that the creature that looks like an umbrella? I think it's called Kasa-Obake.

No, it is not the kasa-obake, but he does appear in the story.

The one I'm needing is just a foot with the shin part of the leg. He has an eye ball on the shin, and a shock of hair on top.

Ben wrote:Stan, I'm usually uncomfortable asking for details on a new story, but will Nurikabe have a cameo? He has to be one of the most hilarious yokai of all time. (Essentially, he's a giant invisible wall that obstructs your path. Otherwise, he's completely harmless.)

He'll be in there, except he won't be invisible. He will be a wall with an eye, that will block Usagi's path no matter what direction he goes.

Stan Sakai wrote:The one I'm needing is just a foot with the shin part of the leg. He has an eye ball on the shin, and a shock of hair on top.

Yama-waro or Ippon-datara? About the only things I could find that may match from this Wiki page.

Wow, November can't come soon enough! If Amazon carries this one with a pre-order like the big one coming this May it'll be so awesome!

November, just for my birthday ! Great, you know Stan how i expect this story !

Mayhem wrote:

Stan Sakai wrote:The one I'm needing is just a foot with the shin part of the leg. He has an eye ball on the shin, and a shock of hair on top.

Yama-waro or Ippon-datara? About the only things I could find that may match from this Wiki page.

I found a picture of the Ippon-datara at obakemono.com. It's not quite like what Stan describes, but it's the closest thing I could find:

This shy monster is rarely encountered by humans, and all that is usually seen of it is a single line of huge footprints about a foot across, winding through the snowy mountains of Wakayama prefecture. Nonetheless the ippon-datara is thought to be a large human-like beast with one leg and one eye. It is also rumored to be an expert blacksmith, or perhaps the ghost of one.

Has anyone here read the book Yokai Attack? I haven't yet, but it's on my Amazon.com wishlist. It looks like it might be a good companion book to The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, which includes a few creatures from Japanese folklore, but not very many.

Stan,

The yokai that you are describing, is it the one in this GeGeGe Kitaro anime line-up? (left row, 10th one down - 2nd one after the rokurokubi)

http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/kitaro/1s ... ndex2.html

(Also, as a side note, you can click the bottom four links at the top of that GeGeGe Kitaro page to access other yokai galleries from the 2007 anime)

If so, the closest english translation of 雪入道 I can find is "yukinyudo" or "yuki-nyudo"... "Snow -something"

The reason I suspect that maybe the one is that I copied/pasted the name of the creature above it's picture into Google Image Search and got this:

http://okab.hp.infoseek.co.jp/20060116/ ... dou034.jpg


BTW, will there be a rokurokubi appearing in the story?

Steve Hubbell wrote:

Forget the whole "inn on moonshadow hill" incident; Usagi's up against the real deal this time.