Treasures from John’s Collection: Shouki 鍾馗様
I bought my first set of Boys Day decorations when I was in fourth grade.
For those of you old enough and familiar enough with Sacramento to remember back
before Highway 80 cut through town and wiped out a large part of Japantown,
there was a wonderful store on P Street called Yorozu, run by the Okada
brothers. I remember getting on the bus to take the long ride into town by
myself, with my jeans pocket full of what seemed to me to be a small fortune in
money earned from mowing lawns. I still remember the intoxicating
sandalwood-like smell of the store and the exotic treasures on display. Eugene Okada was very patient with me, letting me look at everything and pose questions whenever I could find the gumption.
I went home with my first set of miniature nobori and a shiny suit of armor with
a prancing dragon on the helmet. The center banner had a wonderful image of a
scowling character, with wild hair and bushy eyebrows. His name is Shouki (鍾馗様) and he is patron saint of students and civil servants.
Since then I have enjoyed collecting other images and dolls representing Shouki.
It seems that Shouki was a very good student and studied hard to become a
physician in ancient China. The most common story has it that he passed his
exams in flying colors but was considered too ugly to work in the court and
committed suicide in disgrace. I heard a slightly different story as a child,
and it is still the one I prefer.
Shouki came from a very poor but honest household. China was the first
civilization to have civil-service exams for its citizens, and Shouki worked
diligently to earn his spot. The night before the exams were to take place some
roving oni (鬼 small demons) came upon him slumped over his desk, exhausted from his studies.
They decided to pull a prank on him and set about disfiguring him horribly.
When he showed up to take the exams he was barred from the hall by the
indignant officials, ending all chances of becoming the physician he longed to
be. Not long after that Shouki died in sadness and defeat, but he vowed to take his
revenge on the oni in the next life. It is for this reason he is called the Demon Killer and is
almost always shown with a scholar’s cap and and on the look out for the mischievous oni. Shouki has become the protector of students who diligently apply themselves to
their lessons, as well as of civil servants. I like to give him as a gift to
friends battling cancer or other challenges to act as a role model as they
confront their own demons.
For this week’s Treasure from John’s Collection, I have chosen two of my favorite Shouki noboribata. The first has a very regal, no-nonsense sort of look to him, bent on his mission to
systematically rid the cosmos of this plague. And the second, below, somehow seems a bit less high-brow, but no less serious.
With that face and posture, can’t you almost imagine his saying, “Oh, no you di’n't!”?
Shouki Noboribata with Demon in Flight
While the first image has the oni clearly in view, in the second image we can just imagine by his focus where the
oni is located.
Both are dressed in the Japanese-imagined version of how he would have been
dressed in ancient times across the sea.
Each banner is designed to be seen from both sides and so are painted to match
identically front and back. Both banners have been hand painted with no use of rice paste resist or other
aid to the dye process. Natural minerals have been used as the dyes–primarily sumi (墨 lamp black), ai (藍 indigo), gunjou (cobalt 群青), and bengara (iron 弁柄 ). In my dyework I always mix soy milk as a binding agent. This keeps the
pigments from crocking (rubbing off), but it doesn’t seem to have been used in this case.
If we take a close look at the akaoni (赤鬼 red demon) depicted in the first image (see detail below), you’ll notice how the dyes seem to look a bit uneven through wear. This is what
crocking will do. Even though the dyes will hold up well to outdoor abuse, it
would not be wise to wash deliberately them.
"Oh, no you di'n't!"
Iron rust pigments and lamp black pigments are visibly sitting on the surface of
the hand-woven cotton.
By the way, the store Yorozu moved to a new location after closing on P Street.
They are now located on Riverside Blvd. at Broadway, in Sacrametno and still
have many treasures to offer.
If you are not familiar with using soy milk and pigments, you may want to take a
look at Salvation through Soy, a booklet describing its use.
