Ultra-Pop Yokai Arrive at the Yokai Art Museum with “Yokai Like! Like!” and “Plamo Kai”

Humans Continue to Create Yokai in the Modern Age

In ancient Japan, nature, which was beyond human control, was considered to be gods. People believed that all natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons, wildfires, and floods, were caused by invisible, greater forces.

Influenced by Buddhist art, the concept of invisible beings causing mysterious events began to be depicted as yokai (monsters) during the Heian period. However, in the Edo period, the perception of yokai shifted, and they became a form of entertainment for the common people. People began to enjoy colorful yokai illustrations and ghost stories in ukiyo-e prints or in books resembling encyclopedias. This legacy continues today in modern anime and manga works that feature yokai as a central theme. One consistent fact is that yokai are products of human thought. Even today, humans continue to create yokai with their imagination, either to enjoy different stories or to find comfort, constantly updating the forms of yokai in response to the times.

Located in Kagawa Prefecture’s Shodoshima, the Yokai Art Museum is the only place in the world where you can encounter contemporary art of yokai. Housed in restored buildings, including a kimono storehouse, a soy sauce warehouse, a printing factory, and a samurai family’s residence from the Meiji and Showa periods, the museum displays nearly 1,000 sculptures of yokai created by contemporary artists.

The collection, gathered from both domestic and international sources, consists of original pieces submitted to the Yokai Sculpture Grand Prize art contest, which has been held seven times since 2013. These works emit a unique charm, blending ancient yokai culture with modern pop culture. The themes of the pieces range from traditional yokai figures such as “oni” (demons), “tengu” (goblins), “kappa” (water creatures), and “tsukumogami” (possessed objects), to contemporary yokai inspired by social media and the internet.

In November, the book POP YOKAI Contemporary Character Art of Japan (published by Rockbook, France) will be released worldwide (in Japan, it was released earlier in September). The book is structured to mirror the exhibits at the Yokai Art Museum. It introduces some of the “modern yokai” works from traditional yokai to those based on local yokai from Shodoshima and works by the yokai artist Tadahira Yagyu. The commentary is provided by Masanobu Kagawa, Japan’s first “Yokai Doctor.”

 

Yokai Nesugoshi

An old alarm clock was destroyed just as it was one day away from becoming a “Tsukumogami” (a deity of mourning), which is said to change after 100 years of use. It is truly a terrifying yokai that blocks the ears of sleeping people so that they cannot hear the alarm of their alarm clocks, but it is ironic that it takes the form of a chicken. Chickens, which announce the arrival of morning with their cries, are the natural enemy of the night-dwelling yokai. But the chicken that does not announce morning has become a yokai itself.

Yokai Iine! Iine!

A yokai that affirms you. At first glance, this yokai seems to be a favorable yokai for human beings. However, if you fall under the spell of this yokai, you will not be able to recognize your own shortcomings, and your growth as a human being will come to a standstill. Some of them may even turn into monsters that attack others who have different opinions from their own, as their thinking becomes more and more biased as they hear only information that suits them. In a sense, this may be the most terrifying monster of our time.

 

The Plastic Monster

This monster is born out of a grudge against plastic models that have been left unmade for decades. It is said that the grudge against old tools that are thrown away after being used for a long time becomes a yokai called tsukumogami, or mourning god. Unused objects also become yokai in an attempt to escape the unbearable lightness and meaninglessness of their existence.

Plamo Kai

A yokai born from the vengeful spirit of a model kit that was left untouched for decades. While the vengeful spirits of old, discarded tools were believed to transform into tsukumogami (yokai), even items that are never used can become yokai as well. Their existence, marked by unbearable lightness and meaninglessness, drives them to escape this state by transforming into a yokai.

The “Gaijinboshi” (The Masked Man)

The human pursuit of beauty sometimes goes against nature and causes pain to the human body. In a sense, beauty is one of the monsters created by humans. The beauty brought about by high-heeled shoes and the accompanying disease of “bunions,” which is similar to the Chinese bunion, reveal the irrationality of beauty. The inability to avoid wearing them in spite of the pain – this could be called a curse. This work embodies such a modern curse.

In addition to the above, when he finds wrong wording on social networking sites and bulletin boards, he says, “You’re wanted! You’re under arrest! or “Yokai Ochake,” which appears in bars and steals alcohol from those who carelessly use it. The “Akaname,” a yokai that licks the innards of people in the bathtub, is quietly licking radioactive materials in a place where people have disappeared due to the nuclear power plant accident.

 

POP YOKAI Gendai Hyakki Yagyo: Contemporary Character Art of Japan, edited by Yokai Museum and supervised by Masanobu Kagawa (Rockbook), is a bilingual (Japanese-English) introduction to Japanese yokai culture and contemporary yokai art. The book will be available for pre-sale in Japan at Western bookstores from September, and will be released worldwide from November.