Following its tremendous success at the Villa Reale di Monza, the exhibition “Yōkai: The Ancient Prints of Japanese Monsters” arrives in Bologna at Palazzo Pallavicini from April 7 to July 23, 2023.
Conceived and produced by Vertigo Syndrome and curated by Paolo Linetti, a leading expert in Japanese art and curator of significant private collections, the exhibition features over two hundred works from the 18th and 19th centuries, including antique prints, rare books, garments, weapons, swords, and a samurai armor. Also on display is the extraordinary Bertocchi collection of netsuke, small ivory sculptures once used as fasteners, and an 11-meter-long illustrated scroll from the Luigi and Luciana Bartolini collection.
The exhibition opens with an immersive room recreating the legendary samurai test of courage: the ritual of the 100 candles. This ritual, held after sunset, involved samurai gathering in a room lit by a hundred candles. Each participant had to tell a story filled with Yōkai, the Japanese monsters, to scare their peers and test their bravery. At the end of the story, the storyteller would extinguish a lantern’s candle and look into a mirror at the farthest corner from the others, with the room’s growing darkness enhancing the suspenseful, frightening tales.
Among the displayed prints, the extraordinary woodblock prints by Hokusai stand out, including some famous manga notebooks—when “manga” still meant “funny images made without serious intent”—depicting traditional Japanese monsters. Also highlighted is “The Book of Chinese and Japanese Fighters,” one of his most prized illustrated works, presented in its rare first edition. Additionally, masterpieces by the three most important Utagawa school masters—Hiroshige, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi—are featured. These artists were commissioned by the renowned publisher Senzaburo Ibaya to create “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” (the route connecting Edo to Kyoto), representing each station with legends and ghost stories. The creatures and monsters in these illustrations, drawn from local legends, are the ancestors of Pokémon, Japanese robots, and characters from Miyazaki’s animations.
In Bologna, the “Yōkai” exhibition has been entirely reimagined, with some previously unseen works. Notable among them are two splendid woodblock prints by Kuniyoshi, showcasing his humor and passion for monsters: one depicts the comical wedding dance of two newlyweds, who are actually young foxes in disguise, while the other humorously shows a ghost and a cat-woman strolling side by side in conversation. Also intriguing is a war fan used by a general, traditionally moved to issue battle commands.
The exhibition also features a series of contemporary illustrations by Marga “Blackbanshee” Biazzi, a sought-after artist at major Italian comic fairs, with requests for collaborations from around the world. Each illustration presents a modern take on a story and monster, reflecting her unmistakable style. All six illustrations will be collected in a special edition box sold exclusively at the exhibition, becoming a rare collectible item.
