Special Exhibition: Yokai and Mythical Beasts Galore

About this event

The Special Exhibition "Yokai and Mythical Beasts Galore," held at the Tottori Prefectural Museum, is an exhibition that illuminates the history of the relationship between Japanese people and nature through Japanese yokai and mythical beasts (genju). It explains how yokai, now popular as characters, were once feared and revered as beings with powers beyond humanity, embodying the dread of nature. Severe disasters and capricious blessings brought by nature such as mountains and seas determined people's life and death, and that fear became the source of yokai imagery. Furthermore, "mythical beasts"—creatures with bizarre appearances and supernatural traits that were witnessed and whose carcasses or traces were spoken of—waver on the boundary between yokai and real living organisms, captivating people. This exhibition displays numerous artifacts related to "mythical beasts," including the Chikuho Bakemono Emaki (scroll of monsters) displayed for the first time in the Chugoku region, mummies of mermaids, kappa, and raiju (thunder beasts), a taxidermy mount of the human-faced bovine "Kudan," and the skull of a Karasu Tengu. Furthermore, newly discovered materials such as the "Icho-zu" (Illustration of Strange Birds), which prophesied epidemics and whose picture served as an amulet against disease, and "Jakotsu," said to be the jawbone of a giant serpent, will also be unveiled. The exhibition consists of three parts: "Natural History of Yokai," "Chronicles of Mythical Beast Observations," and "From Kunio Yanagita to Shigeru Mizuki: Origins of Modern Yokai Culture," introducing changes in views on yokai and the achievements of Kunio Yanagita and Shigeru Mizuki, who built modern yokai culture.

Venue

Tottori Prefectural Museum

2-124 Higashimachi, Tottori, Tottori 680-0011