A violent, bloody end

"Horrors in Japanese art - devils, demons, monsters, ghosts, magicians, spirits, and phantoms," is the grand finale in the exhibition space of the National Gallery's Oriental Art collection at Zbraslav Chateau before the vast collection, known as among the best in Europe, is significantly downsized and moved to Kinský Palace.

The Zbraslav Oriental Art collection was scheduled to close for good in June, but after a three-month reprieve, the collection's director and head curator, Helena Honcoopová, decided to show one more, last-minute exhibit with works from the permanent collection and selected works on loan from the Archimboldo Gallery and private collections.

Honcoopová explains that she chose "Japanese Horror" (Kaidan in Japanese) because this was a popular theme in the summer season in Japan - especially in the past, when people would gather and listen to horror stories about demons and monsters. These ghost stories were aimed at children, to help them overcome their fears, and it was also the custom to light candles around the group. At the end of each story, a candle would be put out, continuing until the last candle was extinguished late into the night.

Such stories would be a relief from the heat, as storytellers could scare listeners into feeling "frozen in their spines."

At Zbraslav, Japanese horror stories are presented in 90 pieces, including woodcut prints, book illustrations and 3-D Kabuki masks, tsuba (decorative hand guards for swords), ivory sculptures and elaborate plates with fantastic creatures. The exhibit is divided into sections including deities, demons, heroes and heroines, transformed beings, magicians and hags, ghosts and apparitions, and penance.

In this exhibit, every face tells a story. For instance, each of the Noh masks represents a classic figure such as Hanya, the mask of the jealous woman who kills her husband's lover.

These stories first appeared in 8th-century Japanese chronicles. Five-hundred years later, the first visualizations of spirits and demons in scrolls appeared. Then, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the first demons from myths, folktales and narratives appeared in theater performances. Many of the exhibition's colorful woodcut prints portray famous Noh actors, after death, in their most popular roles. These same images later found themselves as illustrations in serial novels or in prints capturing Kabuki theater scenes.

In an introductory text for the exhibit, Honcoopová explains that, up until the 20th century, a parallel world of deities, demons, monsters, apparitions, spirits and phantoms occupied a special role in the daily life of Japanese society, and, as a result, Japanese art is "infused with supernatural beings."

Until this day, the Japanese have living rituals that honor the souls of dead ancestors and believe that souls accompany them through life; and so, the deities, demons and others were real stories of beings who occupied a role in a higher reality determining their fates. Japanese arts are thus full of "hundreds of good and evil creatures" in dance, theater, sculpture and applied arts.

"Gods and demons partook in creating the history and arts of Japan, just like humans did," writes Honcoopová.

The pictures on view are from the late Edo period (1600-1868), with an emphasis on artists of the Utagawa School. There are some striking works by Utagawa Yoshitora (1850-80), one of which shows an instructive battle of frogs armed with leaf stems, poking and stabbing at each other to teach two human warriors how to fight. A fantastic earth spider sits in one corner, and bats, goblins and ghouls in various shades of gray look on with glee from the background.

The works of Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-92) are considered the finest of the horror illustrations of the late 19th century, and his serene picture of a shogun with his two women is like a scene from a modern day horror film. The calm domestic scene is dominated by elegant, flowing floral patterns in the room's interior and on the concubine's clothing. However, the wife in the corner clutches a long knife, setting the scene for a violent and tragic ending. Another picture by this master shows a hero who finds a beautiful, naked woman in the woods about to be devoured by wild monsters.

And, with such images in abundance, the era of the Oriental Art Collection of the National Gallery comes to an end at Zbraslav Chateau - now to become a storage facility for the National Museum as it undergoes renovations.

"Japanese Horror" is being relocated to Kinský Palace on Old Town Square with a plan for reopening in late spring or summer 2010.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com