Image: Kobe City Museum
Kobe City Museum has highlighted a Kyosai-themed display inside the museum by pointing visitors to the so-called “big staircase” just inside the entrance, where figures from Kawanabe Kyosai’s popular work 'Hyakki Yagyō-zu Byōbu' appear to spill into the building. In a social media post, the museum said that if visitors look up to the left while climbing the stairs, they can see yokai creatures seemingly roaming through the interior in a playful “night parade of one hundred demons.”
The post presents the installation as part of a broader museum-focused presentation under the label “Kawanabe Kyosai’s World: Museum Takeover No. 1.” The wording suggests a site-specific presentation that brings imagery from one of Kyosai’s best-known screens into the museum’s architectural circulation space rather than confining it to a conventional gallery wall. The museum did not provide additional curatorial details in the post, but it emphasized the visibility of the work from the main staircase area immediately inside the building.
Kyosai, a major figure in late 19th-century Japanese art, is widely associated with energetic brushwork, satirical invention and depictions of supernatural beings. The museum’s reference to 'Hyakki Yagyō-zu Byōbu' draws attention to one of the artist’s popular subjects, the yokai-filled procession that has long fascinated viewers of Japanese painting and print culture. By invoking that image in the museum’s own interior, the post frames the building itself as part of the artwork’s theatrical effect.
The museum also added a light, seasonal note, writing that the interior is cool even during the day and may therefore be an especially suitable environment for yokai. That comment reinforces the playful tone of the presentation and the museum’s use of social media to guide visitors toward a specific viewing point rather than simply announcing the work in abstract terms.
Kobe City Museum, which describes itself through its own institutional channels as the presenter of this Kyosai-focused display, did not list dates, ticketing information or a full exhibition checklist in the post. The available source material instead centers on a single visual moment: the staircase landing, the leftward glance, and the emergence of yokai from 'Hyakki Yagyō-zu Byōbu' into the museum’s interior space.
