As part of the Halloween celebrations at New People Center in San Francisco, VIZ Cinema is hosting an exhibit of artwork featuring yokai, the spooks, spirits, demons and mischief-makers of Japanese folklore from now through November 6, and on Saturday, October 31, Matt Alt, the author of Yokai Attack! will present a free lecture from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm entitled Yokai University, an introduction to these uniquely Japanese creepy creatures and spooky spirits.
If you've read manga or watched anime, you may recognize yokai -- the nine-tailed fox in Naruto, the tengu in Black Bird, the kappa in Yokaiden, and the numerous creatures in Spirited Away. But there's much more to yokai than just comic book creatures. To learn more, I interviewed Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, the authors of Yokai Attack! about the origins and meaning behind yokai. We also chatted about their Yokai Attack! manga artist collaborator, Tatsuya Morino and his ties to the godfather of yokai manga, Shigeru Mizuki.
New People is located in San Francisco's historic Japantown at 1746 Post Street, between Webster and Buchanan. The lobby gallery at VIZ Cinema is open from 2:00 pm - 11:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and 11:00 am - 11:00 pm Saturday and Sunday. Visit New People World for more information. You can also check out my photo gallery from the grand opening of New People.
Image credit: Courtesy of New People
Comments