Jorōgumo
絡新婦 · The figure in Sekien’s Gazu hyakki yagyō
A woman-like figure with spider limbs and smaller spiders appears in Toriyama Sekien’s illustrated collection. The plate presents an uncanny image without supplying a story of its origin or encounters.
Quick answer
In Sekien’s Gazu hyakki yagyō, Jorōgumo is an illustrated yōkai combining a woman-like appearance with spider features. The selected plate is evidence for that depiction; it does not narrate a seduction, a killing, or a transformation. This record follows the 1776 picture-book witness.[1, Yō, 絡新婦]
Quick facts
| Tradition | Edo-period Japanese yōkai print culture |
|---|---|
| Record type | Named yōkai subject in a historical illustrated collection |
| Source realm | Japanese folklore imagery; no named locality in the plate |
| Primary witness | Toriyama Sekien, Gazu hyakki yagyō, 1776, Yō (陽) volume |
| Written heading | 絡新婦 |
| Depiction | Woman-like figure, spider limbs, threads and smaller spiders |
| Narrative status | A labelled illustration, without an accompanying explanatory tale |
What the source presents
Sekien’s collection arranges supernatural subjects as individual illustrations. Jorōgumo opens the Yō (陽) volume: the Kawasaki City Museum viewer identifies image 2 as the contents and 絡新婦 spread. The museum dates its woodblock book to 1776. This provides an exact source location without inventing a chapter title or modern page number.[1, image 2 and catalogue]
The figure’s human appearance and spider features occur together in one composition. Smaller spiders and fine threads surround it. The heading identifies the subject, but there is no prose account on this plate explaining who the figure was, how it acquired this appearance, or what happens next.[1, Yō, 絡新婦] [3]
Description and interpretive limits
The monochrome reproduction shows a robed, woman-like figure with long spider limbs. Fine lines connect the composition with smaller spiders; curling forms beside some of these can be read as flames or smoke. That visual reading does not establish a stated ability to breathe fire, command other spiders, or set buildings alight. The plate provides no explanatory caption resolving the action.[1, Yō, 絡新婦] [3]
A combined human-and-spider image also does not, by itself, specify a sequence of shapeshifting. No dimensions, colour scheme, lifespan, venom, family relationship, or weakness is assigned here. The small spiders’ size relative to the main figure is part of the composition, not a measurement.
Source realm: Japanese yōkai imagery
The selected source belongs to Edo-period Japanese print culture. Its plate supplies no named village, province, waterfall, or supernatural kingdom. Edo is the edition’s publication place, not an asserted habitat for Jorōgumo.[2, catalogue]
The profile is grouped under Folklore places as a historical yōkai collection with an unspecified setting. The site’s Japanese traditions shelf already identifies Sekien’s work as a source for yōkai; this grouping makes no claim that his depiction represents every Japanese account.
Primary work, edition and image
- 1Toriyama Sekien, Gazu hyakki yagyō (画図百鬼夜行), Yō (陽) volume
Japanese woodblock edition, An’ei 5 (1776). Kawasaki City Museum, material no. 30, “画図百鬼夜行 前編（陽）”; digital viewer image 2, “目次・絡新婦” (contents and Jorōgumo). Museum catalogue and indexed location consulted; the plate reproduction used for this profile is separately credited in item 3. No modern English translation is used, and the English descriptions are editorial paraphrases of visual evidence.
Museum edition and indexed plates (select image 2) ↗ - 2Tokyo University of the Arts Library, Gazu hyakki yagyō, catalogue record 11348
Bibliographical check for the 1776 edition: Toriyama Sekien; Edo, 出雲寺和泉掾 and 遠州屋弥七; three volumes; shelfmark 貴重書/11/43. The Japanese publisher names are retained as the authoritative catalogue forms. This library’s copy is not claimed as the source of the Wikimedia image.
Library edition record ↗ - 3Toriyama Sekien, Jorōgumo plate, Wikimedia Commons reproduction
“SekienJorogumo.jpg,” 372 × 492 pixels, uploaded 8 October 2006. Commons identifies the artist and subject and marks the reproduction public domain. The eighteenth-century work predates modern adaptations; the original artwork and this faithful reproduction are used on that public-domain basis. The upload cites an older web reproduction but does not identify a holding institution or print impression. It is therefore not described as a scan of either museum or library copy above.
Direct provenance and rights record ↗ · Public Domain Mark ↗
