Sup I'm Max

A fascinating illustration by Japanese artist Takehara Shunsensai from The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Picture Book of a Hundred Stories), published about 1841. The book is a vast supernatural beastiary of phantoms, monsters, and spirits from Japanese Yōkai folklore, including Nebutori, a supernatural spirit that visits upon unsuspecting women who go to sleep shortly after a meal and awake from rest to find themselves dramatically heavier than before. That the spirit visited only upon women probably had more to do with the patriarchal nature of Japanese society during the Edo period and I’d like to think that the spirits today wouldn’t choose their victims based solely on their gender!