Ghosts and Demons in Japanese Prints

From dancing skeletons to monsters and demons, supernatural beings have long featured in both Japanese folk tales and Kabuki theatre. This exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago (15 July–15 October) uses prints from the museum’s Clarence Buckingham Collection to explore the stories behind these characters. Highlights include depictions of Kaidan mono, Kabuki ghost plays, which employed trap doors and flying apparatuses to dramatic effect, alongside actors masquerading as spectres or skeletons – as can be seen in a 1738 print by Katsukawa Shunshō of a scene from the ghost play Flower of Edo. Elsewhere, a woodblock by Okumura Masanobu depicts Shoki the Demon Queller, a figure from Chinese legend whose image was often displayed in Japanese homes in the belief that it helped to ward off disease. Find out more on the AIC’s website.

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Scenes from Edo no Hana Mimasu Soga (Flower of Edo: An Ichikawa Soga) (1783), Katsukawa Shunshō. Clarence Buckingham Collection. Courtesy Art Institute Chicago

Kohada Koheiji from the series One Hundred Ghost Tales (c. 1831), Katsushika Hokusai. Clarence Buckingham Collection. Courtesy Art Institute Chicago