Art and supernatural lovers were left spellbound as the ‘Yokai Parade — Supernatural Monsters from Japan’ exhibition closed its doors for Karachiites.

The three-day exhibition, held from Monday to Wednesday, showcased pieces reproduced from various art forms that depicted yokai — best described as “Japanese folkloric imaginary monsters”.

Words such as ghosts and jinns do not suffice to categorise what yokai are, since these imaginary beings dating centuries back have various shapes, sizes, myths, and even behaviours, thanks to the creativity of Japanese artists.

As time passed, the art medium for these depictions changed from picture scrolls to woodblock prints to card games and popular media, which were displayed at the event (most of them being fine-quality replicas).

The Karachi exhibition was organised by the Japan Foundation in collaboration with the Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi, the Pakistan Japan Cultural Association (PJCA), and the State Bank of Pakistan Museum, where it was held.

The travelling exhibition, which has made stops in several Asian countries, was curated by Yumoto Koichi, director emeritus of the Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum, and featured 84 artworks.

“Before it came to our Islamabad embassy which organised it in Lahore, it was [held] in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Turkiye, New Zealand — just to name a few,” said Rabia Ali, a Cultural and Public Affairs official at the Consulate-General of Japan in Karachi.

“After our exhibition in Karachi, it’s going to be shipped to Myanmar,” she added. Earlier this month, Lahore citizens got a chance to see the artefacts up close.

The exhibition in Karachi was held at the SBP Museum — what better location than a museum to display art depicting historical imagination?

Ears shaped like a vampire’s, an eye or three popping out, lively expressions, swords and sticks in hands, and unusual body proportions are some of the features yokai often feature.

Many have animal characteristics combined with human limbs — the head of a cat, short webbed feet like a reptile’s, tongue or neck stretching like a snake’s — or in many cases, animal bodies standing in an upright pose like humans.

Another popular category is of objects taking yokai forms, where you can see musical instruments, pots, lanterns, and suitcases, among others, come to life — often in a whimsical way.

Such creatures are also referred to as Tsukomogami, tools that have acquired a spirit. They have acquired a place in shows as well, such as in Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari, where a tool’s functions define the resulting being’s abilities.

Explaining the exhibition’s aim, Ali, the Consulate-General official, told Dawn.com: “We aim to spread the Japanese culture — all forms of Japanese culture whether they be in written form, through workshops, exhibitions, [or] any cultural festivals that we hold throughout the year.”

Detailing the audience’s response, she said: “As soon as I explain to the audience what it’s about, they are really intrigued and are able to connect it through Pakistani culture as well, like folklore and myths.”

Speaking to Dawn.com, Ali described the visitors as “very impressed” with the bizarre yet amusing paintings. She noted that despite there being a difference in cultures, the Pakistani audience took great interest in the show, considering we have our own local horror folklore and myths.

From scrolls to media

The setup was divided into four “chapters”, or sections, providing a chronological overview of how hundreds of supernatural creatures have continued to live over the years in various mediums.

The first chapter, titled ‘The Spectacular World of Yokai Picture Scrolls’, featured scrolls depicting “various yokai running wild and rampant across washi paper that, at times, is over 10 metres long”, as the exhibition leaflet states.

The next chapter was titled ‘The Richly Colorful World of Yokai’, which showcased woodblock prints that infused even more liveliness into yokai through vivid colours.

The third chapter, ‘Yokai and Games’, gave a glimpse into how yokai were incorporated into games in the late 1800s as time passed. This was the era when yokai became evidently closer to people as they were often featured in board/card games and fictional works.

People “eventually felt a sense of closeness and affection for them, which even gave birth to amicable and almost friendly-looking yokai”, the Japan Foundation notes.

The final chapter, ‘Yokai Passed Down to Present Day’, showed how the stuff of the supernatural world became embedded into entertainment media in the form of monster movies and adorable merchandise.

While yokai art was the central topic of the show, what really caught people’s eyes were yokai statues. While a large replica stood tall on a block, as if almost guarding the exhibition, smaller ones were lined separately in glass cubes.

The exhibition also included a sub-category of yokai known as ‘Prophetic Beasts’, which were said to foretell the future.

Among these was Amabie, a three-legged sea creature with fish scales that could predict a good harvest or an epidemic. According to BBC, Amabie regained popularity on social media in 2020 during the Covid pandemic with people sharing drawings of it with the hashtag #AMABIEchallenge to ward off the disease.

According to the Japan Foundation, yokai seems to have “gradually become less of a subject of fear and have come to be viewed as a more charming and friendly presence”.

This is especially true when it comes to present-day Japanese media. Yokai are the central figures in not just heart-pounding horror animes such as Mononoke but also in rather calming slice-of-life ones like Natsume’s Book of Friends.

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Such shows have piqued the interest of many in Pakistan as well and made them familiar with popular Japanese legends.

Hamza Khan, one such visitor at the exhibition, told Dawn.com that the event was “pretty cool”. Recalling having seen “these depictions in movies and TV shows”, he highlighted that reading about their history was interesting to him.

Khan, who was accompanied by a friend, said he wished to see more exhibitions, especially about Japanese cuisine, as well as more comic conventions (also known as comicons).

Header image: ‘Nekomusume and a Monster Cat’ is at display at the ‘Yokai Parade — Supernatural Monsters from Japan’ exhibition, organised by the Consulate-General of Japan at State Bank Museum, in Karachi, on Oct 30, 2024. — Photo by author