Seto Taishō – [Yokai | Tsukumogami]

Description

Seto Taishō – [Yokai | Tsukumogami] – (JP: 瀬戸大将, せとたいしょう) aka:  “General Seto”

•About this Yokai: A small ceramic samurai, ready to take over your kitchen! – a Tsukumogami made up of old shattered Setoware ceramics; cracked pottery and broken kitchenware with a sake bottle for a face!! – If you don’t take care or do your dishes enough or if you accumulate too much broken dining ware and leave it around for too long, this guy might soon appear!! He loves to run around and wage wars against chefs, The entire kitchen becomes a battleground! If he breaks he’ll just piece himself back together!

•History & Earliest appearance: This yokai made its earliest apperance in Toriyama Sekiens Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro [画図百鬼徒然袋 1784] – The included verse translates as follows: 

“General Seto of the Sake warming pot trounces the karatsu ware CaoCao composing poetry with his lance. at the ready he wears a beautiful shu han brocade inspired pattern, So I dreamed”

– [Toriyama Sekiens – Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro – horde of haunted housewares (vol 3) 1784] Image source Smithsonian Translation: Japandemonium.] – 

“Seto” refers to the Seto inland, an area in Japan most famous for its ceramics, so much so that “Setomono” became a catch all term for ceramics in the kanto area… Meanwhile “karatsu ware” was popular as well, so “Karatsumono” was the generic name for ceramics in the Kansai area! – the battle he describes is a reference to a chinese novel “Romance of the three kingdoms” – so It was a joke about how these terms would clash like rivals I suppose.

Although he’s a very popular yokai, he’s hardly the only teapot yokai! -there are actually tons of different kinds found across picture scrolls and edo period prints!!!!

• PopCulture: General Seto is a great reminder that if you design something that sticks, it can remain hundreds of years later: Recently, General Seto played a big role in nioh2 (I’d go on but spoilers.) – he also appeared as a main character in the ‘great yokai war’ movies.

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky (yo thats me!) – Part of my Night parade of 100 Demons – Yokai & Japanese folklore sticker collection, weather resistant 4″ Glossy sticker. Check my shop & follow @samkalensky for many more!