FR EN
an oriental painting of a bird flying over a body of water
Premium FRANCOIS EPIN ART & DESIGN CONSULTING

3 - Yūrei (ghost) holding a severed head
See original version (French)

Estimate €6,000 - €8,000
Sale commission
Description
Yūrei (ghost) holding a severed head Anonymous Japan Late Edo period – early Meiji period, 19th century Vertical scroll, ink and colours on paper, mounted on silk H. 130.5 (194) cm × W. 54.3 (63.5) cm This painting depicts a yūrei, one of those spirits of the deceased which Japanese folklore conceives as being held back in the world of the living by a violent death, a passionate attachment or a desire for revenge. The ghost of a woman appears here in an almost ethereal apparition. Her body gradually dissolves into the space around her, whilst her contorted face and long, loose hair concentrate all the tension of the image. In her hand, she holds a severed head, the face of which remains surprisingly lifelike. A few red highlights depict the blood flowing from the neck and face, emphasising the violence of the scene. There is a striking contrast between this head, rendered with a certain material precision, and the woman’s spectral body, whose contours seem to fade into the paper. Only her hair, rendered with extreme meticulousness through countless ink lines, takes on an almost physical presence. To a Western eye, this vision of a woman holding a severed head may naturally evoke the iconography of Salome presenting the head of St John the Baptist. The resemblance, however, is purely formal. Nothing in the work establishes a connection with the biblical narrative, and the scene is firmly rooted in the Japanese world of yūrei, violent deaths and tales of supernatural vengeance. This analogy nevertheless reveals the universal power of the image of the severed head, which is at once a trophy, proof of death and an extreme manifestation of violence. In Japan, a woman’s hair carries strong symbolic significance. Long, carefully tended and neatly arranged, it was long associated with beauty, femininity and social status. Conversely, dishevelled or untidy hair could signify a loss of control, mourning, madness, possession or the intrusion of the supernatural. This contrast plays a key role in the iconography of ghosts and is also found in Nō theatre, where the styling of the hair helps to characterise certain female characters dominated by jealousy, suffering or resentment. The Japanese word ‘kami’ can refer, depending on the character used, to hair (髪) or deities (神). Whilst this homophony has sometimes given rise to symbolic associations, in ancient narratives and practices, hair is primarily closely linked to the person, the body and vital energy. In the *Kojiki*, the comb features notably in the episode where Izanagi attempts to escape the realm of the dead, Yomi, highlighting the capacity of certain objects associated with hair to take on a protective or magical function. In depictions of yūrei, which became particularly prevalent from the Edo period onwards, long, loose black hair thus became one of the most instantly recognisable visual hallmarks of the female ghost. Combined with a pale face, a faintly visible body and the apparent absence of legs, it expresses the uncertain transition between presence and disappearance. This iconographic convention remains deeply rooted in the Japanese collective imagination and continues to be exploited by contemporary fantasy cinema, notably in *Ring* (*Ringu*, 1998), where the hair concealing the face constitutes in itself a powerful sign of a spectral apparition. In this film, the almost obsessive refinement with which the hair is depicted contrasts with the sparse landscape and the evanescence of the body. The violence of the severed head is therefore not merely narrative. It sets the bloody materiality of death against the uncertain existence of the ghost, condemned to linger between the world of the dead and that of the living.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale Art Animation VII: Monsters, Villains and Antagonists
Auction location
Auction time 10/18/2026 at 3:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like