Event Details
Public Talk - Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga
Lectures and Talks Featured Event

Public Talk - Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga

October 16, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Join us at MOIFA to jump deep into Yokai, J-horror, and all things spooky with Zack Davisson, Writer, Translator, Folklorist; as he shares the world of " Masters of Monsters: The Tradition of Horror in Japanese Folklore and Manga." Book signing to follow the talk. Free Talk with Museum Admission. Before the talk, get ready for Halloween and make your own Yokai mask from 12noon-2pm in our Atrium.

To request ASL interpretation please contact patricia.sigala@state.nm.us, by Oct. 9th.

From the ancient weird energy of mononoke to the rise of yokai in the Edo period, Japanese storytellers have a well of frights to draw on. Kabuki artists like Tsuruya Namboku IV spun ancient folklore into modern stories. Ukiyo-e artists like Yoshitoshi Tsukioka amped up the gore and writers like Ryunosuke Akutagawa refined the shock into terror.This is the inheritance of horror that modern manga artists have continued to build upon. ‘Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitaro’ artist Shigeru Mizuki was one of the first to use Japan’s folkloric past in manga, followed by second-wave artists like Hideshi Hino and Tsunezo Murotani and modern artists like Junji Ito. Learn more about this legacy of horror!

Zack Davisson is an award winning translator, writer, lecturer, and scholar of manga and Japanese folklore and ghosts. He is the author of YUREI: THE JAPANESE GHOST, YOKAI STORIES, and THE SUPERNATURAL CATS OF JAPAN from Chin Music Press. He contributed to exhibitions at the WERELDMUSEUM ROTTERDAM, the ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, and the INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF FOLK ART.  He has lectured on Japanese folklore and manga at DUKE UNIVERSITY, ANNAPOLIS NAVAL ACADEMY, UNIVERSITA CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA, UCLA, and the UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, and is a frequent guest and panelist at comic and anime conventions. He has been featured on NPR, the BBC, and in THE NEW YORK TIMES, and has written articles for SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, WEIRD TALES, JAPANZINE, METROPOLIS, KANSAI TIME-OUT, and THE COMICS JOURNAL. He was a researcher and on-screen talent for National Geographic’s TV special OKINAWA: THE LOST GHOSTS OF JAPAN, has appeared as a commentator on Chinese news network CCTV. He has maintained the popular Japanese folklore website HYAKUMONOGATARI.COM since 2010. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife Miyuki, their dog Mochi, cats Bagheera and Sheer Khan—and several ghosts.