March 23–October 6, 2024
Japan After Dark
Throughout history, the division between the real world and the world of supernatural beings has been remarkably porous in Japanese culture. Certain sites, states of mind, or periods in the lunar cycle made humans especially vulnerable to ghostly intervention.
This interactive feature presents a variety of prints to show the popularity of supernatural imagery in Japan.
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Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints
Author List: Kit Brooks, Frank Feltens
Publisher: Smithsonian Books, National Museum of Asian Art
Publication Date: October 31, 2023
Meet cat demons, skeletal ghosts, and the nine-tailed kitsune in this brilliant and beautifully illustrated volume of ghost imagery in traditional Japanese theater. This exhibition catalogue presents striking, eerie nineteenth-century woodblock prints from Japan that feature ghosts, demons, and other supernatural entities. The book digs into the country’s rich folkloric traditions and how they were brought to life on stage, with insightful essays that explore the depiction of spirits through the centuries, the relationship between printed images and cultural imagination, and how kabuki and Noh theater performances reflect Japan’s deep connection to and shifting notions of the supernatural.
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Generous support for this exhibition and the museum’s Japanese art program is provided by
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