Takashi Murakami Mononoke Kyoto

Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art

This is the 90th anniversary exhibition for the Kyoto museum.

Mononoke are vengeful spirits (onryō), dead spirits (shiryō), live spirits (ikiryō), or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death.

In creating the works for this exhibition, Murakami said he was beseeched to “express the wild contrast between the touristy Kyoto of today and the Kyoto of old, where people lived among terrifying monsters.”

Oddly, this exhibition is both on display and open to the public, while still being a work in progress. Murakami said: “This may sound like nothing but an excuse, but some of the works on display here are not yet finished. Starting on the opening day of the exhibition, we will be producing a separate set of works and will be replacing the works in the show with them on a rolling basis as they get completed. I apologize for such a peculiar exhibition format.”