Japan's 1st museum of folklore 'yokai' monsters opens near Hiroshima

Japan Today -- Apr 28

Japan's first museum of folklore monsters opened Friday in Hiroshima Prefecture, allowing visitors to get immersed in a strange world of yokai through historical artifacts and interactive digital installations.

The Miyoshi Mononoke Museum, or formally Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum, opened in the city of Miyoshi after Koichi Yumoto, a 68-year-old ethnologist and yokai researcher in Tokyo, donated some 5,000 items from his collection in 2016.

The western Japan city is known as the setting for "Ino Mononoke Roku," a famous folk tale from the Edo Period (1603-1868). The story tells of a 16-year-old boy's 30 days of confronting yokai monsters.

The museum displays about 160 items from Yumoto's collection, which includes a scroll painting of the famous folk tale and crafts.