Happyaku Bikuni 八百比丘尼

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About the artwork Happyaku Bikuni 八百比丘尼

One of the best-known folk tales is that of Happyaku Bikuni (八百比丘尼, Engl. "eight hundred[-year-old] Buddhist nun"), also read Yao Bikuni. The story is about a fisherman from Wakasa province who once caught an unusual fish. As he had never seen such a fish in all his years, he invited his friends to examine the flesh.

One of the guests caught sight of the fish's head in the kitchen. He saw that it had a human face and warned the others not to eat it. However, the fish was already prepared, so everyone took a piece to dispose of on the way.

One, however, was drunk on sake and forgot to throw his piece away. When he got home, his little daughter demanded a gift and the man carelessly gave her the meat. When he came to his senses again, he tried to stop his daughter from eating for fear of poisoning her, but it was already too late. However, since nothing bad happened, he did not worry any more.

The years passed, the girl grew up and got married. From then on, she did not age and kept her youthful countenance, while her husband grew older and older and finally died. After marrying and widowing again and again, the woman became a nun and wandered the countryside. Eventually she returned to her home in Wakasa, where she ended her life at the age of 800 in a cave near the Kūin Temple (空印寺, Kūin-ji) in present-day Obama. [Source: Wikipedia]

About the artist Vinz Schwarzbauer

Vinz Schwarzbauer (*1987 in Graz, Austria) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2014. In 2011/12 he spent a year in Hamburg with the Art School Alliance Scholarship at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK). He lives and works as a comic artist and illustrator in Vienna, Austria.