Book illustrator
Masazumi Ryusai
竜斎正澄 (the Met writes 正澄竜斎; Japanese sources also give 竜閑斎, Ryukansai)
Illustrator of a cheerful 1853 picture book of ninety-six Japanese ghosts.
On Picturepops™ cards · 4
The life
active 1850s (birth and death dates unknown)Born Unknown
Masazumi Ryusai (竜斎正澄), also written Ryusai Masazumi, is known today almost only through one book, and his birth and death dates are not recorded. He made the color woodblock pictures for Poems on One Hundred Ghost Stories (Kyoka hyaku monogatari), published in 1853. The book, compiled by the poet Tenmei Rojin, gathers comic verses (kyoka) about ninety-six yokai, each with a small picture beside the poems. His foxes, kappa, crow tengu and other creatures are more funny than frightening, which suits the verses. The writer Lafcadio Hearn owned a copy and translated a selection of its poems in his essay Goblin Poetry (1905). Picturepops cards use several of his yokai from this book, including the nine-tailed fox, a kappa, a little crow tengu and the tofu boy.