Dark chills on a summer day (1)
Ito Junji exhibition (2024.4.27-9.1)
In Japan, summertime is the time for ghost stories. In addition to magazines and TV shows featuring special features on eerie events and unusual phenomena, scary movies, books, and other spooky media are frequently launched in July and August.
This association of summer with spine-chilling tales has its roots in the Buddhist tradition. The Buddhist festival of the dead, called Obon, takes place in summer. During this season it is believed that the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds grow thin, allowing the spirits of the dead to revisit their families. However, not all the spirits are good. High summer in Japan is, therefore, a time when we should beware of lost souls, unquiet spirits and vengeful ghosts.
Another common belief, in the hot and humid Japanese summer, is that a really scary ghost story will induce enough chills and goose bumps to cool you down. In the Edo period (1603 – 1868) this belief led to a popular trend for summer ghost story gatherings and many of the classic stories of that era are still popular today.
This summer has been so hot and muggy that I’ve spent most of the time at home. I desperately needed to cool down, so a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to an exhibition devoted to the beautifully nightmarish art of Ito Junji, one of Japan’s most popular manga artists.
The venue, the Setagaya Literary Museum, was packed with young comic fans, including many foreigners.
61-year-old Ito Junji is one of Japan’s - no, let’s make it the world’s best-known and loved horror comic artists. Here’s how his work is described:
Ito waves unique worlds with tales full of twists and turns that seem to flow from his pen. Just beyond a door in an unassuming setting - horror is there, quietly waiting. Ito's art aims for reality and is based on his own experiences. The effect is to stimulate readers empathy and imagination, pulling them in close until they are forced to connect their own memories to Ito's drawings of twisted scabby skin and slimy textures. Inside the masterful renditions of a realistic world hides blood-curdling horror.
Ito’s realistic drawing style is very different from your typical Japanese manga especially in the way he portrays people.
In this miniseries, I’m going to post some of the photos I took at the exhibition. Luckily, taking photos was allowed.
Be ready for more horror.
And if you are interested, please check out my two otaku guides and other otaku-related books:
A few reading tips
Dear readers, as you are reading my posts - and other newsletters on Substack, I suppose - you probably like books too, in which case you should check out Shepherd.com, a website where authors share some of their favorite works around a topic, theme, or mood (e.g.
Here in the United States, I remember as a child dark nights under the stars sitting around a campfire with grownups telling scary folk stories. I can't imagine people enjoying that today!