detail view:


This painting was completed completely in Photoshop and is inspired by a japanese ghost story. This particular story has a few different versions to it, but I will retell the version I have come to know best. This was inspired after a visit to Himeji castle in Japan which actually has this same well preserved there to this day...
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Many years ago the prominent family of Aoyama took up residence at Himeji castle. The aoyama family was descended from an old clan and they had passed down through the generations 10 ancient dishes emblazoned with the family crest.
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It came to be that the lord of the house of Aoyama had become flirtatious with one of the servant girls; Okiku. They became lovers, but because of their differing classes their illicit romance was not to be. When Okiku pleaded with her lover to run away with her and marry, he refused and spurned her. In her grief Okiku took one of the aoyama plates and smashed it to pieces.
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Furious at her crime, Lord Aoyama stole away with Okiku one night into the lower garden. There he struck Okiku over the head and through her body down the well, where she died.
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Even today the spirit of Okiku haunts the well... rising in the dead of night to walk around the periphery, counting as she goes the number of plates. 1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. 5.. 6.. 7.. 8.. 9.... but before she reaches the final plate she lets out a blood curdling scream and dissappears into the nightly mists...
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...or so they say.