Japanese Artist & Illustrator Sakyu Creates Yōkai Monsters from Modern Objects and Phenomena

Japanese artist and illustrator Sakyu has a fertile imagination when it comes to yōkai. Paying homage to the artistic style and the visual conventions of yōkai woodblock prints, she enjoys creating entirely new yōkai based on modern objects and phenomena.

Through the clever design, concept, and naming of the yōkai to the creative use of the limited color palette to make striking compositions, Sakyu creates perceptive and thought-provoking works updating yōkai to the Reiwa Era.

Yōkai 妖怪 are supernatural entities and spirits from Japanese folklore. Deeply tied to the Japanese animistic belief that spirits inhabit all things, whether living or not, yōkai can take on humanoid features, animal features or the plague-fighting, recently revived due to the pandemic, and even inanimate objects such as tools.

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