ISSUE 01
Did the spirits bring me to Japan? I started drawing walking, spirit-inhabited houses years before I ever visited. Make of that what you will.
✦ WHAT'S BEEN INSPIRING ME LATELY
Sasuke Inari Shrine — Kamakura
I think the photos speak to themselves. This place feels wonderfully eary! Full of tiny houses and Kitsuke statues, surrounded by lush fauna of Kamakura.
✦ ONE TERM WORTH KNOWING Hokora (祠)
A tiny shrine, built roadside or deep in the forest , often just large enough for a single figurine. The purpose is simple: give a spirit a place to land. An invitation. Not a cage.
In the Haunted Tea House universe, these are exactly the tiny dwellings craftsmen build to coax spirits into staying.
The shrine was littered with tiny houses - offerings, invitations, little shelters for wandering spirits. The moment I saw them, I knew. This was the perfect fuel for my haunted houses. So I used these photos as inspiration for my new haunted house creations <3.
Let’s pick one and give him a lil Obscuritea flower to focus on.
In the Haunted Tea House universe, you don't build a house - you grow it. A spirit must choose to stay, and no one can predict which shell it will pick. Many tiny houses are left to perish, never chosen. So offerings are made. Many of them. Hopefully one catches the right spirit's attention.
And if it does - a few tiles appear first. Then a window. A new floor pushes up slowly. Given enough time, enough presence, you'd have a house you could actually live in.
That is if you can sustain the spirit inside :).
