An exhibition in Japan highlights supernatural spirits imbued with the fears and anxieties of everyday life.
Yōkai are objects of Japanese folklore going back centuries: A spider-woman spirit was especially feared in the Edo Period, but yōkai have since evolved to be more playful and cute.
The Yokai Art Museum runs an open competition for contemporary entities, which were recently compiled in a book.
The submissions show “what’s keeping people up at night in Japan,” The Japan Times wrote. It includes the “rice swindler yōkai” (borne from the country’s current rice shortage), a decontamination yōkai that licks away radioactive waste, and several related to climate change and ecological fears.
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