Japan Monsters Inc – The Exhibition

If you pass through Sannomiya station these days (the biggest railway station in Kobe) don’t be surprised if you see posters like these:

and this:

These bizarre creatures are Yokai – traditional Japanese monsters/spirits and the reason they decorate Sannomiya station is the recently opened Yokai exhibition in Hyogo Prefectural museum. The exhibition celebrates the 60th anniversary of Mizuki Shigeru’s career as manga artist (or rather horror manga artist). The most famous character of Mizuki Shigeru is Kitaro (from the manga Gegege no Kitaro – ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) – a one eye yokai boy who “fights for peace between humans and yōkai”.

The exhibition contains not only manga drawings of Mizuki Shigeru but also reproductions of ancient yokai paintings as well yokai statues. Here is a link to the official exhibition web page (in Japanese)  – http://www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp/exhibition/- just scroll down and click on some of the black boxes for more images from the exposition. It looks like this is definitely the place to be if you want to learn more about the Japanese traditional monsters.

The exhibition will be opened till 3rd of October 2010.

Here is the access map to the museum if you are planning to visit it. I didn’t do it yet but I it is in my very near future plans so you may expect a follow up of the story