Image: Watanabe Museum of Art, Tottori
The Watanabe Museum of Art in Tottori is currently hosting a special exhibition titled ‘THE 妖 -AYAKASHI- 岡野元房の妖精×渡辺美術館の妖怪’, which looks at yokai through a mix of classical art, contemporary sculpture and fairy-like figures. According to the museum’s announcement, the project is presented as an exploration of what yokai were historically, rather than only how they appear in popular imagination today.
The exhibition brings together the museum’s own holdings and the work of artist Motofusa Okano, placing modern sculptures alongside older material to create a layered view of supernatural beings in Japanese visual culture. The title links Okano’s fairy figures with the museum’s yokai-related collection, signaling a dialogue between different artistic approaches to the supernatural.
Yokai occupy a distinctive place in Japanese art and folklore, and the museum’s framing suggests an attempt to examine them through several lenses at once. By combining classical art with contemporary sculpture, the show invites visitors to consider how these spirits have been represented, interpreted and reimagined across time. The museum describes the project as one that presents the world of yokai through various artistic perspectives.
The exhibition is being held at the Watanabe Museum of Art, a museum in Tottori that is presenting the special exhibition as a current program. No separate closing date is listed in the source material, and the museum’s notice identifies the show simply as ongoing.
The exhibition title is written in Japanese and includes the phrase ‘AYAKASHI’, a term often associated with mysterious or supernatural beings. In this case, the museum pairs that idea with Okano’s fairy imagery and its own yokai collection, creating an exhibition structure that emphasizes comparison and reinterpretation rather than a single historical narrative.
The current presentation remains on view at the Watanabe Museum of Art in Tottori, Japan.
