Pop Yokai

A delightful journey into Japanese popular culture through yokai art.

Yokai are strange, mysterious creatures that populate Japanese folklore and inspire contemporary art and entertainment, such as Pokémon and the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away. The Yokai Art Museum, which is situated on the idyllic island of Shodoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, is the only museum in Japan dedicated solely to contemporary yokai and boasts a collection of almost 1,000 artworks. Visitors are guided by the voice of one such creature as they discover the origins and history of yokai and explore the contemporary world through yokai-themed art.

This fascinating, one-of-a-kind museum is reproduced in the pages of this book. It includes material written by Dr. Masanobu Kagawa, the first accredited Japanese yokai scholar and the author of many yokai-related books, original works created for this publication by yokai artist and museum director, Chubei Yagyu, and yokai tales from Shodoshima and other parts of Kagawa.