<figure id="attachment_396161" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 865px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396161"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="529dddcb"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/cd8294812ee1a4b350432dff02f2f92c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396161" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The name of the work is &#8220;The Evolution of Yokai&#8221;. It is a vinyl umbrella yokai wearing sandals. (All images are from &#8220;POP YOKAI: Contemporary Character Art of Japan&#8221;)</span></figcaption></figure>
<h3><b>Humans Continue to Create Yokai in the Modern Age</b></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Located in Kagawa Prefecture&#8217;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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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 &#8220;oni&#8221; (demons), &#8220;tengu&#8221; (goblins), &#8220;kappa&#8221; (water creatures), and &#8220;tsukumogami&#8221; (possessed objects), to contemporary yokai inspired by social media and the internet.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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 &#8220;modern yokai&#8221; 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&#8217;s first &#8220;Yokai Doctor.&#8221;</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The following are some of his works: &quot;Yokai Nesugoshi&quot; (Specter Nesugoshi), &quot;Yokai Ii Ii, Ii! I like it!&quot; ......"></div>
<h4><b>Yokai Nesugoshi</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An old alarm clock was destroyed just as it was one day away from becoming a &#8220;Tsukumogami&#8221; (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.</span></p>
<h4><b>Yokai Iine! Iine!</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p>
<h4><b>The Plastic Monster</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><b>Plamo Kai</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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 </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">tsukumogami</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (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.</span></p>
<h4><b>The &#8220;Gaijinboshi&#8221; (The Masked Man)</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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 &#8220;bunions,&#8221; which is similar to the Chinese bunion, reveal the irrationality of beauty. The inability to avoid wearing them in spite of the pain &#8211; this could be called a curse. This work embodies such a modern curse.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In addition to the above, when he finds wrong wording on social networking sites and bulletin boards, he says, &#8220;You&#8217;re wanted! You&#8217;re under arrest! or &#8220;Yokai Ochake,&#8221; which appears in bars and steals alcohol from those who carelessly use it. The &#8220;Akaname,&#8221; 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.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Modern yokai at the POP Yokai Museum"></div>
<figure id="attachment_396172" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2150px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396172"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="409aaf17"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/3646d88b8a1b3daa4e8cfbf09540a41f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396172" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nesugoshi is a broken alarm clock that has become a monster. Blocks the sleeping person&#8217;s ears to make the alarm inaudible.</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396162" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396162"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2dc8f0f0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/4c8ab34ba14cb892a2d28d8db6a701f0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396162" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The &#8220;Yokai Iine,&#8221; which solemnly affirms itself! I like it! seems to be a good yokai at first glance, but when it becomes obsessed with you, it can be a scary thing.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_396163" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396163"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0fd28dfe"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/53f957ea766f985de181e592e4cf9547.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396163" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The plastic model monster was born from the grudge of plastic models that were left unmade. Do you have any idea what it is?</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396164" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396164"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6115c895"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/09187d5534c486a0abc5a604bcef3afa.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396164" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The face-snatchers, who steal people&#8217;s facial expressions and make them expressionless, may be the most common yokai living in Japan.</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396165" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396165"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="24dfde32"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/350726e09f8e04a7b908249b09b39a93.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396165" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The &#8220;Gaijinboshi&#8221; is a yokai that puts such a curse on you that you have to wear heels to stay beautiful even though it hurts.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_396166" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1071px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396166"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a34e29c2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/361a370cc37d6049deddafb6073ef3fc.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396166" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The &#8220;Ochake&#8221; steals alcohol when it sees an opening in humans. Ochanomitomo is a yokai that appears out of a teacup because it wants to be your friend.</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396170" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396170"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7ae7ae2d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/39a7a2ff23869da6acc7ef3fc0141931.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396170" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The &#8220;work order&#8221; was born from the communication difficulties between a boss and an AI subordinate, the misuse appears when you use the wrong words, and the blocking demon cuts off all connections such as cell phone signals. Entaki-kun&#8221; is the ghost of an enter key that has been hit too hard and has been torn to pieces.</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396167" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1060px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396167"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ac736b66"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/9aad1e3ea94e18048ea5ccaaf5b0d456.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396167" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The &#8220;Yokai Deisen&#8221; licks radiation because there are no more people left due to the nuclear power plant accident and there is no more innards to lick. The Yuki-onna, hibernating! and other yokai born as a result of environmental changes.</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_396168" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1236px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396168"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d97f08e6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/51494b66b20eaec11fe501f5bdf797f4-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396168" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">POP YOKAI: Contemporary Character Art of Japan, edited by Yokai Museum, supervised by Masanobu Kagawa, published by Rockbook.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<p><a href="https://mononokedo.thebase.in/items/90380997">POP</a> YOKAI <a href="https://mononokedo.thebase.in/items/90380997">Gendai</a> Hyakki <a href="https://mononokedo.thebase.in/items/90380997">Yagyo: Contemporary Character Art of Japan, edited by Yokai Museum and supervised by Masanobu Kagawa (Rockbook), is a</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.</p>
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 The "Yokai Art Museum" on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture is the only place in the world where visitors can encounter contemporary yokai art. A book containing this yokai art will be published by a French publisher in November. Here are some of the pop yokai.

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

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