Yokai Museum: The Art of Japanese Supernatural Beings from YUMOTO Koichi Collection (PIE YOKAI Festival Series) (Japanese, Japanese and Japanese Edition)

"Yokai Museum: The Art of Japanese Supernatural Beings from Yumoto Koichi Collection" is an exceptionally beautiful volume, issued by the museum whose name appears in this title and presented by the same expert who published "Mythical Beasts of Japan." In contrast to this other book, "Yokai Museum" examines its supernatural beings through a wider variety of art forms. Thus we have not only paintings and woodblock prints, but also sword furnishings, playing cards, toys, kimono, dress accessories, and even porcelains. Further, this book has greater context regarding yokai themselves and their use as visual images. Even so, readers seeking real depth of information on Japanese supernatural beings would do well to team "Yokai Museum" with Henri Joly's "Legend in Japanese Art."

THIS IS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE BOOK I HAVE SEEN COVERING THE YOKAI...EXTREMELY COLORFUL..HUNDREDS OF UNIQUE ILLUSTRATIONS DEPICTING THE SURREAL WORLD OF THESE CREATURES. THE PICTURES ARE AUTHENTIC FROM THE CULTURE AND NOT CONTEMPORY RENDITIONS...THROUHOUT MY STUDIES OF THE SUBJECT THIS BOOK IS ASTOUNDING AND THE BEST....WALK DON'T RUN AND GET TWO COPIES OF THIS SUPERIOR PRODUCTION FROM PIE PUBLISHING YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT..."DAL LAZLO SAYS THESE ARE VERY TWISTED CREATURES "

Fine book. Great for beginners. Pointless for people that have an understanding of yokai.

A great reference for drawing.

awesome book on the subject

Wonderful illustrations. Well put together collection.

Yokai Museum is just what it sounds like: a museum of yokai-themed artwork spanning hundreds of years of history, condensed into book format. All of these works come from the vast collection of Yumoto Koichi — yokai researcher, professor, and former curatorial director of the Kawasaki City Museum. The Yumoto Koichi collection is the world’s largest collection of yokai-related art, and while Yokai Museum doesn’t come close to covering the 3,000 items in the Yumoto Koichi collection, it does cover an impressive selection of more than 161 pieces, detailed in high quality full color photos. The 288 page book is bilingual, featuring English translations side-by-side with the Japanese text, making it doubly useful as a language study tool for anyone looking to practice their Japanese (or English, for that matter). The descriptions are written with people who are not intimately familiar with yokai in mind, so they don’t require much foreknowledge to enjoy (and it is primarily a picture book, with only small written parts, like the tags you would see at a museum on the wall next to a piece).Yokai Museum is divided into six chapters covering various formats of yokai art that appeared over time: picture scrolls, books, woodblock prints, games, everyday items, and religious items. Chapter 1: Picture Scrolls – A Cast of Colorful Yokai begins with the oldest known piece of true yokai art: the Hyakki Yagyō Emaki scroll attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu. It then shows a large number of other scrolls, including detailed close ups, and goes over the history and development of the styles used in these paintings. Chapter 2: The World of Yokai Books starts with Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and moves on to the “yellow cover” books and other kusazoshi printed material from the Edo period. Chapter 3: Nishiki-e – A World of Gorgeous Color features the beautiful and colorful woodblock prints from the golden age of ukiyoe. Images by Hokusai, Yoshitoshi, and other masters are included alongside other less well-known pieces. Pictures of Edo period color newspapers, large format tryptichs, advertisements, and other old images are beautifully reproduced here. Chapter 4: Yokai Games is full of toys and games of all kinds from the Edo period up until the Showa period. There are illustrated board games, card games, fold-up paper models, kamishibai, and beautiful, strangely crafted mechanical wooden toys that would probably give any kid today nightmares! Chapter 5: Yokai Lurking in Everyday Life contains pictures of everyday items including kimono, obi, and other clothes, dishes, bottles, netsuke, even knife handles and sword guards. Chapter 6: Yokai and Prayer features a large number of votive cards that feature illustrations of various yokai on them. There are also works of art with religious significance which once belonged to various temples.I was surprised at just how pervasive the yokai influence actually got to be. While I have long been a fan of the old prints and paintings from the Edo period, this was the first time I had ever seen yokai-themed kimonos, and that just blew me away! And while I had seen yokai paintings, prints, and netsuke, before, the votive cards and toys that were created over a hundred years ago (and look like they could have been made today) were amazing.

This book is amazing. Lots of images. English text provided. Terrific for the artists library. It definitely could have been shipped with more protection. Cover came ripped - hence the low rating.

amazing work...highly informative

Yokai Museum is a really nice art book. There's a bit of writing (some in English some in Japanese) here and there but it's mainly just good pictures. It's split out nicely in sections too.

More about artifacts than the yokai.

Fabulous pictures!

brillant as I expected