#otogo-douji

KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES XLVIII: LITTLE GUYS

This one is for the little guy(s). The compendium isn’t all statuesque deities and that one yakuza guy: there’s plenty of room for the diminutive spirit or the dwarfish god, though many sit at the bottom of the food-chain in terms of level or are otherwise relegated to extreme obscurity. Such is the case with our slate for this month, but I’m sure you’ll find they’re inspired all the same!

1. OTOGO-DOUJI:Our pal Douji has been a particular no-show following his debut in the Saturn era. His design is a fairly direct interpretation of classical depictions of the Gohou-Douji, a class of child-like protector deities in Japanese Buddhism. Kaneko’s rendition is decked out with the dharma-wheel and sword-garb sported by both the more common young boy variety pictured above and the hilarious child-man incarnation.
   
2. BES:The perhaps equally obscure Bes is uniformly depicted as a pot-bellied dwarf with lolling tongue, so you can hardly hold it against Kaneko for playing a close game here. In a somewhat surprising move, he forgoes the opportunity to depict a certain appendage in favor a more modest combination of primate tail and stylish shorts, with an Eye of Horus medallion thrown in for flavor.
3. CAIT SITH:It was only a matter of a time before Gustave Doré showed his face here, but not through his austere renderings of Dante and Milton, as luck would have it. No, Kaneko instead made the excellent choice of seeking inspiration from Doré’s depiction of the gallant Puss in Boots for his take on the Celtic Cait SIth (understandable, considering the dearth of traditional imagery for the latter). His lacks some of the more endearing qualities of the original, such as the accruement of bird skulls and dead mice, but the comparison otherwise speaks for itself.