I just finished reading a book called Pandemonium and Parade – Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai by one Michael Dylan Foster.  The book is a discussion of the way traditional Japanese monsters and spirits were viewed/believe in/studied over the last few hundred years.  It is a pretty academic text, but I found it quite interesting.

The cultural conception of yokai has gone through a number of changes over the centuries, but I was fascinated to discover one of the earliest ways yokai were consciously studied was as an encyclopedia or bestiary.  It is interesting to think about the current concepts of “monsters” in Japanese popular media as being bred from encyclopedic collections.  Odd to think of something as frivolous seeming as Pokemon being the cultural descendent of Japan’s introspective obsession with it’s own supernatural/folkloric history.  It is also interesting to note how the notion of making up new creatures for the sake of describing and collecting them as entertainment  (Pokemon) actually goes all the way back to the author of the first recorded yokai specific encyclopedia, Toriyama Sekien.

If you’re interested in bestiaries, monsters and discussions of what these things reveal to us about the culture that created them, check out Foster’s book.  If nothing else, the chapter about the late 20th century will make you wish Mizuki Shigeru’s work would get translated and released here in the US.

This week we get a new print in the gallery.  I’m sure you all agree, this is very exciting.  The February print is coming along nicely as well, so there is more excitement to come in the weeks ahead.