Saturday, May 30, 2009

Mizuki Shigeru Road

I really enjoyed our afternoon in Sakaiminato, and as well as the collection of bronze yokai sculptures (a small selection of which you can see here, here, and here ) there are yokai all over the place.

miho6695

The trains on the JR Sakai Line, which connect Sakaiminato to Yonago, are decorated inside and out with scenes from Shigeru's stories.

miho6697

The street lamps around the station appear as Medama Oyaji, Daddy Eyeball.

miho6722

Halfway down the street there is even a faux "shrine" complete with ema.

miho6746

Paintings and drawings of yokai adorn the walls and even the sidewalks of the street

miho6732

Lining both sides of the street are shops selling yokai products of every conceivable type, masks, canned drinks, clocks, the usual range of Japanese omiage with yokai packaging. It was hard to find any type of product that wasn't made in a yokai form. When I next visit I intend to see if I can find some yokai condoms.

miho6716

There is also another large set of "negative space" sculptures on the street and at a nearby seaside park.

Finally, there is the Mizuki Shigeru Museum which has displays of Shigeru related materials, numerous screens showing anime, and yokai material from around the world collected by Shigeru.

1 comment:

  1. Now I have two reasons to go there on my next trip, the other is Shoji Ueda the photographer's museum.

    ReplyDelete