Aka-e - Japanese Colour Magic

Aka-e are Japanese woodblock prints where red is the dominating colour. Red prints were believed to protect against smallpox and were used as talismans.

The idea is based on the old tale that says, if a smallpox patient is dressed in red the disease will be mild. The demon (or god) they believed to cause the disease, Hōsō-Kami, would like the red and be inclined to treat its wearer kindly. Red was thus applied in other ways as well. As light, as rouge, as sacred paper strips, a lot of things. Red prints were just one more way. According to Japanese folklore, red expels demons and illness. (Below, an Aka-e from the 1730s by Okumura Masanobu)

The next print is by Kuniyoshi; it is deliberately made to create a smallpox talisman. Such prints can be called hōsō-e, which literally means “smallpox picture”.

Smallpox prints were considered even more powerful if they depicted certain beings, such as Tametomo, a heroic samurai, Daruma and an owl, or someone called Shôki, who was a demon queller, originally from China, where he was called Zhong Kui or Chung Kwei.

The next picture shows Shôki appearing in a dream [Muchû Shôki shutsugen no zu chûban], a print by Hasegawa Sadanobu, from about 1840. The picture is not entirely red, but the main motive is.

The smallpox prints were burned or thrown in a river when the sick person had recovered. For that reason, few of these prints have been preserved.

(This article is based on material previously published in Meriondho Leo.)

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