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Submitted: August 9, 2010
Image Size: 1.2 MB
Resolution: 2688×3276

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Aka-shita - "Red Tongue"by ~Gitoku

Traditional Art / Drawings / Fantasy

The Aka-shita (sometimes Aka-guchi) is depicted as giant fur-covered monster with a gaping red mouth and long drooling tongue emerging from a large black cloud.

Some Japanese word-play seems to be behind the depiction of this creature. Aka-guchi (赤口) can also be read as Shakkou, a day which, according to traditional Japanese cosmology (Onmyoudou), is said to be the least auspicous and most dangerous date on the Japanese calendar. Thus, the Aka-guchi, like the bad luck predicted for Shakkou, appears out of thin air to wreak havoc.

The name "Aka-shita" can be traced back to Sekien Toriyama's drawing which appears to be based on an earlier depiction of Shakuzetsu-jin (赤舌神 - literally Red Tongued Kami), the guardian diety of the "Red Gate to the West" - Red Gate, too, is written as 赤口 (Aka-guchi).

These five concepts and their readings - 赤口 Red Mouth/赤口 Shakkou/赤口 Red Gate/赤舌 Red Tongue/赤舌神 Red Tongued Kami - seem to have combined and evolved over time to create the Aka-shita as it was known in 19th Century Japan.

Also, drawing a creature with fur emerging from a cloud using only cross-hatching was haaaaarrrrrdddd. Not sure I pulled it off...

!RCAR-SUNSPIRIT Aug 9, 2010

great art line
shadows and effects

~Gitoku Aug 10, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Thanks.

~fahrenheight Aug 9, 2010

... I wish I had a tongue like that...

epic cross hatching and shading dude

~Gitoku Aug 9, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Cheers^^

~fahrenheight Aug 9, 2010

!Thessy Aug 9, 2010

I didn't read it all, but the pic is cool. Though I should point out that the clouds look more like rocks, probably because of the hard edges.

~Gitoku Aug 9, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Cheers. Thanks for your suggestion

~mwmh91 Aug 9, 2010

this is great it would be a cool tattoo

~Gitoku Aug 9, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Thanks

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