Yotsuya kaidan

Yotsuya Kaidan (1983) takes its title from one of kabuki's most famous ghost stories, the tale of Oiwa — a woman poisoned and disfigured by her faithless husband Iemon, who returns from death to haunt him with relentless supernatural vengeance. First performed in 1825, Tsuruya Nanboku IV's play remains the definitive Japanese horror narrative, its imagery of Oiwa's melting face, the lantern that bears her visage, and the nailed coffin door entering permanent cultural memory. Kokei's woodblock treatment of this subject engages with centuries of theatrical and visual tradition, the print medium's capacity for stark tonal contrast and precise line perfectly suited to the tale's mixture of beauty and horror.