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Yomi
Yomi ?? or Yomi-no-kuni, is the name of the afterlife realm as it’s believed in Japanese culture.
I wanted to depict an image of this, and it happens to fit with the Surrealist Art challenge that the MCA proposed.
So I delved into portraying a female cat dressed in a Kimono walking in a field towards Mount Fuji. There’s several Koi Fish in the sky, either they’re either swimming or flying (That’s to be interpreted by the viewer) since there’s a ripple of water in the middle of the image (Although the ripple and the little vortex in the middle ended up looking more like a tornado. This can also be interpreted by the viewer at their leisure).
I wanted to show that maybe she’s underwater by having the top part darker than the bottom part, but at the same time there’s clouds on the bottom section where the Koi Fish are at.
This was a lot of fun to tackle, as it allowed me to open my mind and at the same time stay connected with the type of art that I do.
• In Japanese folklore, the afterlife is known as Yomi, or Yomi-no-kuni, which translates to “land of the dead”. In Shinto mythology, Yomi is the underworld where the dead go after death, but it's not a central part of Shinto theology and only appears in ancient myths. In these myths, spirits cross the Sanzu River to reach Yomi, where they may encounter creatures that help or hinder their progress. According to one belief, if a spirit eats at the hearth of Yomi, it’s almost impossible to return to the living.
• Modern Shinto beliefs about the afterlife focus more on the idea that spirits survive death and help the living. After 33 years, spirits become part of the family kami, and may live in the mountains and participate in agricultural events. Shinto also includes the belief in obake, which are restless spirits that died in bad circumstances and may seek revenge
