Yokai & Spirits

A white fox sitting before a red gate, a huge moon, a path disappearing into the trees. A yokai poster opens a window onto Japan's spirit world, the one of bedtime tales and shrines hidden in the mountains. It is decor that intrigues rather than shouts, and that is exactly its charm.

Kitsune, torii gates and night parades

Yokai are the creatures of Japanese folklore: mischievous spirits, horned demons, everyday objects that come alive. In the 18th century the artist Toriyama Sekien drew and catalogued them in proper illustrated encyclopaedias, the first published in 1776 as Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, "the illustrated night parade of a hundred demons". Illustrators still borrow from his pages today.

Among all these spirits, the kitsune, or fox, holds a special place. It is seen as the messenger of Inari, the deity of rice, and stone foxes guard the shrines dedicated to it. In Kyoto, Fushimi Inari Taisha lines its mountain paths with thousands of vermilion torii gates, forming tunnels that have become one of Japan's defining images.

Anime embraced this world, from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001), with its bathhouse full of spirits, to Natsume's Book of Friends. The result is a palette you recognise instantly: lacquer red, moon white, midnight blue, and plenty of silence around them.

Bringing a spirit print home

These images love empty space. A red torii under a pale moon holds a light wall on its own, above a bedside table or a reading desk. The red is enough to warm the room without crowding it.

To build a small series, pair it with something more classical, like a woodblock-style wave or Mount Fuji: both share the flat colour and clean lines of old Japan. Light wood, paper lampshades and green plants finish the mood.

Whether you live in Tunis or a quiet town in the south of Tunisia, a yokai wall turns a corner of your room into a doorway somewhere else.

Lights off, eyes on the moon, and let the fox keep watch.