In Bologna, the exhibition on Japanese Yōkai. And you get your money back if you didn't like it

After the great success at the Villa Reale in Monza( newshere ), the exhibition Yōkai. Ancient Japanese Monster Prints comes to Bologna, in Palazzo Pallavicini, from April 7 to July 23, 2023. Conceived and produced by Vertigo Syndrome and curated by Paolo Linetti, a leading expert on Japanese art and curator of important private collections, the exhibition introduces Western audiences to the fantastic world of monsters in the Japanese tradition through more than two hundred works from the 18th and 19th centuries, including antique prints, rare books, clothing, weapons, and a samurai armor. Also on display is an extraordinary collection of netsuke, 77 small ivory sculptures once used as clasps.

The exhibition opens with an immersive room that makes visitors relive the experience of the samurai’s most legendary test of courage: the 100-candle ritual. This ritual began after the hour of sunset and saw the samurai gather in a room lit by the light of one hundred candles. Each of them had to tell their comrades a story populated with yōkai, the Japanese monsters precisely, with the aim of testing their courage by scaring them to death. At the end of the story, those who had told it had to get up, blow out a lantern candle, take a mirror and mirror themselves in the corner farthest from the others: the gradual darkening of the room accompanied the telling of increasingly frightening and suspenseful tales.

Prominent among the works on display are the extraordinary woodcuts by Hokusai, of whom some of the famous manga notebooks are offered, when the word “manga” still had its original meaning of “amusing image, made without serious purpose,” all depicting monsters from the Japanese tradition, and “The Book of Chinese and Japanese Fighters,” one of his most prized illustrated works, offered in its first edition, which is now extremely rare. Also of note are masterpieces by the three most important masters of the Utagawa school, Hiroshige, Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, from whom the famous publisher Senzaburo Ibaya had commissioned "Fifty-three Parallel Stations of the Tokaido" (the street that connected Edo to Kyoto), asking them to depict each of them through legends and scary stories. The creatures and monsters that populated these illustrations, protagonists of local traditional legends, are the ancestors of Pokémon, Japanese robots, and the characters depicted in Miyazaki’s animations.

Compared to the Monza stop, the Yōkai exhibition has been totally rethought for Bologna, where works never exhibited before are also presented. Among the others, we point out two splendid woodcuts by Kuniyoshi, in which the artist well expresses his irony and his passion for monsters: one depicts the funny wedding dance of two newlyweds, under whose disguises are two young foxes; the other shows us, with great comic comic relief, a ghost and a cat woman walking side by side, intent on a conversation. Very curious, then, is a war fan of a general who, according to samurai tradition, moving it gave orders in battle.

The exhibition is completed with a series of plates by Marga “Blackbanshee” Biazzi, a sold-out illustrator at major Italian comic book fairs with requests for collaborations from all over the world. Each panel will present a tale and a monster in a contemporary key thanks to its unmistakable style. All six illustrations will be collected in a box set sold in a special preview edition at the exhibition and then never again, effectively becoming a rare collector’s item.

Visiting hours: Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday: groups only by appointment. Last on one hour before closing. Tickets: Full: €16.50 (Launch Promo €13 until April 23); Reduced: €14 (under 18, over 65, accompanying disabled persons; Launch Promo €13 until April 23); Reduced Children: €5 (6 -12 years; Free until April 23). Free Children: 0.00€ (up to 6 years old). Open tickets: 18.00€ (online only). Presale: 2.00€. The exhibition has also activated a curious promotion: Satisfied or Reimbursed. In fact, to those who did not like the exhibition, the organization will return the money spent on the ticket. “The exhibition,” the website reads, “is going to be beautiful and we are so sure of that that we are ready to return the full cost of the ticket to anyone who does not leave happy at the end of the visit. Come, see and if you don’t like it ask for your money back. Are you in?” For all information, you can visit the event’s official website.

Pictured: Kuniyoshi Utagawa, The Witch Princess Takiyasha and her father’s skeleton (c. 1844)

In Bologna, the exhibition on Japanese Yōkai. And you get your money back if you didn't like it

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.