Amaterasu, the sun goddess in Shintoism, was hiding in her cave as darkness and chaos spread across the world. Some noisy children arrived and began to play the taiko drums with such vigor that the goddess woke up and filled everything with light… and in the process inspired the creators of the famous video game Kami, in one of the clearest manifestations of the powerful influence. of ancestral mythology in Japanese popular culture, rabidly hypermodern.
From myths to manga is the title of a surprising exhibition that is at the same time the calling card of Young V
“We wanted to replicate as much as possible the playfulness and creativity that permeates Japanese culture,” explains curator Katy Canales, who emphasizes its capacity for reinvention and “constant transformation”: from the netsuke miniatures of the 17th century to the invasion of the Pokémon in the 21st century, from the great wave of Hokusai’s ukiyo-e to the entry into orbit of Osamu Tezuka’s Astroboy.
A wood engraving by Utagawa Kunisada, recreating the story of the goddess Amaterasu, opens the doors of this journey to the imagination of the rising sun. The taiko drums, designed by Noritaka Tatehana, are then an invitation to awaken the luminous spirit in these times of darkness.
From there we jump to the stars, with an obligatory stop at Tanabata, the festival that celebrates the “interstellar romance” between Vega and Altair, reincarnated as a princess and a shepherd embarked on an almost impossible love story (they can only be seen once a year : the seventh day of the seventh month). Tradition dictates that terrestrial lovers also take advantage of that day to formulate their wishes on small strips of paper (tanzaku) that are tied to bamboo canes.
Astronomy was Naoko Takeuchi’s distant inspiration to create Sailor Moon, one of the most popular stories of the 90s, following the adventures of student Usagi Tsukino and her sailor guardians to prevent the destruction of the solar system. On the walls of Young V
The anime productions of Studio Ghibli come to meet us at the edge of the sea, with the scenes of Ponyo, the fish princess who despairs of becoming human. Five of the highest-grossing animated films of all time have been made in Japan (with honorable mentions to My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away).
And a lithograph of Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa reminds us where all that creative and destructive force comes from in the country of 14,000 islands. In the 19th century, Hokusai was the first to popularize the term manga (literally, “informal drawing”).
We then enter the depths of the forest, the origin of the Sylvanian Families, the anthropomorphic animals that originated in Japan and that live a second youth after the 37th year since their creation. The small creatures are indebted to the netsuke miniatures, and also to the kawaii concept, similar to our idea of cuteness.
And the harshness of the city becomes more bearable with the protection of those Pikachu-like pets that have conquered the world in all their forms. As a counterpoint, the infinite interpretations of the Night Parade of the Hundred Demons, already present in the illustrated scrolls of the 14th century and revived in the manga Nura: the Lord of the Ykai, written and illustrated by Hiroshi Shiibashi.
Manga has also become fashionable, thanks to Comme de Garçons, and inspires budding stylists like Coco Pink Princess, who at 12 years old is an Instagram phenomenon. In her own way, the artist Noritaka Tatehana also updates traditions such as wooden sandals in three impossible models exhibited in London.
And Keita Miyazaki puts the culmination with Double Spiral, an installation with disused automobile parts that illustrates the Japanese fascination with robotics and the metaphorical power of the Transformers, as a symbol of a culture of perpetual change… «Myths have “given rise to imaginative and innovative responses for artists and designers for centuries,” emphasizes curator Katy Canales. “Our intention is to try to spread that spirit.”