Set within a maze of streets in sleepy Tonosho, a large bug-eyed creature painted on a building corner points out directions to confused pedestrians. The odd beast Michi-shirubei doesn’t always get it right, but he means well.

The yōkai, a creation of artist Chubei Yagyu, is one of about 900 folk spirit artworks collected at the Yokai Art Museum on Seto Inland Sea’s Shodoshima in Kagawa Prefecture. Yagyu, the museum’s director and a yōkai artist from the island, and his team run an open competition for sculptures of original, contemporary yōkai. The submissions from Japan as well as an increasing number from abroad are exhibited across four spaces that make up the museum. Last year, they were compiled into the book “Pop Yokai: Contemporary Character Art of Japan.”

Aspects of daily life have long been imbued with spirits and gods to explain mysterious phenomena, and yōkai dwell within things that provoke fear and anxiety. The sometimes bloodthirsty, aquatic kappa is well known, as is the fearsome jorōgumo, or woman spider. In the Edo Period (1603-1868), these spirits were to be feared, often referred to as “bakemono” (monsters), but as folklorist Masabu Kagawa writes in “Pop Yokai,” modern yōkai have evolved from the dreadful and spooky bakemono — today, they include creatures that are cute, humorous and playful.

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