All images courtesy of PIE International, shared with permission
Translating to “strange apparition,” the Japanese word ykai refers to supernatural beings, mutant monsters, and spirits. Mischievous, generous, and sometimes vengeful, the creatures are rooted in sociology and experienced a tattoo during the Edo period when artists would input inexplicable phenomena to the unearthly characters. Japan’s Miyoshi Mononoke Museum in the Hiroshima Prefecture houses the largest ykaicollection in the world with increasingly than 5,000 works, and a typesetting recentlypublished by PIE Internationalshowcases 60 of the most iconic and unconvincing pieces from the institution.
Encompassing a range of mediums from painted scrolls andnishiki-e woodblock printsto kimonos and metalworks, Ykaiis a massive volume of 500-plus pages of colorful illustrations, paired with text by author, collector, and curator Koichi Yumoto. The typesetting reproduces rarely seen works by artists like the renowned ukiyo-e printmakerTsukioka Yoshitoshi, showcasing the pieces in incredible detail and contextualizing their role in the broader tradition and art history.
Ykaiis currently misogynist on Bookshop.
