The Exhibition “Yōkai” at the Innocenti Museum: Ancient Artworks Narrating Japanese Folklore

The Museo degli Innocenti is hosting the exhibition “Yōkai. Monsters, Spirits and Other Hauntings in Japanese Prints”, a journey through the creatures that populate ancient Japanese folklore, through hundreds of previously unpublished works from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.???? Polychrome woodblock prints, rare books, masks, weapons, and armour await visitors from 13 June to 3 November in the halls of the Innocenti Museum in Piazza Santissima Annunziata.

Designed and produced by Vertigo Syndrome, the exhibition is curated by Paola Scrolavezza, Director of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Bologna, and Eddy Wertheim, Director of the Japanese Gallery Kensington in London. After the Monza and Bologna editions, in Florence the exhibition presents a new layout and offers the public 150 new works never seen before including antique prints, rare books, masks, weapons and armour thanks to the collaboration of the Stibbert Museum in Florence.

During the exhibition, workshops and discussions for children, adolescents and families were organised by Vertigo Syndrome in cooperation with the Bottega dei Ragazzi (Children’s Workshop), the Museum's educational section.

The exhibition route

The exhibition opens with an immersive room that makes visitors relive the experience of the samurai's most legendary test of courage: the ritual of the 100 candles. The ceremony began after the hour of sunset with the samurai gathering in a room lit by the light of a hundred candles. Similarly, visitors will enter a totally dark room, only lit by the dim light of a hundred candles that, in a play of mirrors, will appear to multiply and cast flickering shadows across their faces. The candles will then be extinguished one by one, accompanied by the hoarse voice of the ghost of a samurai.

Once out of the room of a hundred candles, and making their way through the dim light of the exhibition, visitors will be able to see prints by masters such as Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) and Utagawa Toyokuni III (1786-1865). The entire exhibition gives a voice to the places, spaces, emotions, and sensations embodied by the yōkai, aiming to reach the heart of the creation of images that are deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Also on display are two extraordinary samurai armours, helmets and ancient tachi swords, lent for the occasion by the Japanese armoury of the Stibbert Museum in Florence. Finally, the exhibition offers a selection of works created especially for the occasion by young contemporary artists: in Florence, Giulia Rosa has chosen to narrate life, relationships, love and the other daily existential crises that we all face, letting herself be inspired by the world of the yōkai.

Activities and workshops for children and young people

The Yōkai exhibition is very suitable for children and young people. They will be the most amazed, amused and intrigued by the countless side activities at the exhibition. All children arriving at the exhibition will be welcomed by an invitation to take part in a treasure hunt inside the rooms of the Innocenti Museum to find traces left behind by a fictitious Ambrogio, a yōkai explorer, who needs their help.

At the end of the treasure hunt, each child will receive one of ten treasure hunter pins as a prize. The rooms also include a play area full of monsters to colour in, a card game where children can create their own personal yōkai, and a scenario where the yōkai received as gifts can run around.