Aknosom Gijinka

I designed a gijinka of the Aknosom from Monster Hunter Rise! I'm a big MH fan and I have been having a lot of fun with the new title. Felt like it was about time I made some MH fan art, especially since some of my art pals have been making gijinkas too! See Rakna-Kadaki, Khezu, Goss Harag, Nargacuga, and Bombadgy thus far. I had to join in because I love gijinkas and how well thought-out they can be, and hope mine did the Aknosom some justice!

Thought process time! To start, here is official art of Aknosom:

The new monsters in MHR are based off of yōkai--with the Aknosom being inspired by umbrella yōkai called Karakasa-Kozō or Kasa-Obake. They are often depicted as umbrellas with a single eye that hop around on one leg, sometimes with their tongue sticking out. They're known to be more mischievous than malicious, so I wanted my Aknosom girl to reflect those physical traits and have a mischievous expression. Thus, I ended up with hair over one eye, a leg converging pose, and mlem! 😜

Since MHR is Japanese-themed, I felt it was appropriate to give my gijinka a kimono. I patterned it to look similar to Aknosom's body and wings, with bright red inner sleeves to match the bright red primary feathers.

Keeping a conical silhouette, like an umbrella, was VERY important to me. It's really fun to have that extra care about the origins of what I'm turning into a gijinka. Not only did I give her a parasol that is meant to look like Aknosom's head, but I positioned the sleeves to retain the cone.

During my research, I saw this artwork by Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825) called "Woman in Rain with Umbrella," which depicts an umbrella that I think looks a lot like Aknosom's head! I totally took inspiration from it.

As for its crest that looks like an eyeball, I put it on top of her head as a hair ornament. Sadly it doesn't show in the full body since I needed the parasol to be in a cone shape. But I think it makes a wonderful accessory for a little hair bun.

About hair, I did consider giving her an updo similar to the one in the ukiyo-e above. However, during my readings, I learned that noble women of the Heian period grew their hair long and wore it straight down their backs. While I wouldn't say this is supposed to be a historically accurate representation in any sense, it interested me because I thought could more easily depict the shape of Aknosom's spiked tail by giving her long straight hair tied at the very end. The single, long bang over her eye is also supposed to look like Aknosom's beak!

I had a blast reading about traditional fashion, thinking about design choices, and bringing them to fruition in this drawing. I hope you like her!