The Zenshoan temple in Tokyo’s Yanaka district is home to 50 hanging scrolls depicting ghosts and spirits. These once belonged to the Meiji era rakugo storyteller Sanyûtei Encho (1839–1900), who specialized in recitations of tales of ghosts and the supernatural. This exhibition focuses on Encho’s personal collection of artworks, as it explores the expression of “urami” (grudges and resentment) as it occurs in the history of Japanese art.
Unlike monstrous demons, in Japanese culture ghosts are the spirits of those who have been unable to find peace after death and thus remain as apparitions in the real world. This exhibition examines how pictures of these ghosts and spirits express our deep-seated and unconscious human emotions, while also examining how ukiyo-e prints, modern Japanese paintings, Noh masks, and other media express the concept of “urami.”
Edo period painters such as Okyo Maruyama, Rosetsu Nagasawa, and Shohaku Soga, ukiyo-e artists including Kuniyoshi Utagawa and Katsushika Hokusai, and modern artists such as Kyosai Kawanabe, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, and Shoen Uemura are some of the many Japanese artists who were participants in this contest to show the unseen, to create images that can almost be called souvenirs from the afterlife.
[Related Event]
Noh Performance & Night Museum
Date: Aug. 21 (Fri)
Noh performance from 13:00, night museum 17:00–19:00.
Please see the official website for details.
Closed on Mondays. Closes at 19:00 on Aug. 11 (Tues) and Aug. 21 (Fri).
Fee
Adults ¥1100; University and High School Students ¥700; Junior High School Students and Under free; Persons with Disability Certificate + 1 Companion free.
10 minute walk from exit 1 at Nezu Station on the Chiyoda line, 10 minute walk from the Koen exit of JR Ueno Station, 15 minute walk from the Main exit of Keisei Ueno Station on the Keisei line.
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