The French photographer Charles Fréger has travelled the world in pursuit of people in costume. In his series “YOKAINOSHIMA,” he catalogues the monsters, or Yokai, of Japanese folklore.
“Oneonde No Odoriko,” Karitate, Fukuejima, Nagasaki Prefecture. Chankoko and Oneonde are ancient nembutsu odori , held primarily in the city of Goto, in the Goto Islands.
The French photographer Charles Fréger has travelled the world in pursuit of people in costume. He has devoted projects to both imagined characters and real-life figures—road sweepers, water-polo players, practitioners of Mardi Gras rituals in New Orleans and pagan traditions in Europe—interested, always, in how people “look the part.” In his latest series, “YOKAINOSHIMA,” Fréger catalogues the monsters, or Yokai, of Japanese folklore.
Fréger has lined up monsters from all over the islands of Japan: those who dance in hope of a bountiful harvest; those who come down from the mountains, sword in hand, to encourage a productive new year; those who comfort the souls of children who have died in famines. Their masks and costumes belong to varying traditions and festivals—from the Toshidon festival, which takes place on New Year’s Eve, to the Paantu festival, an exorcism ritual.
Although the figures Fréger photographs are drawn from real Japanese custom, he refers to “YOKAINOSHIMA” as an invention, a place inhabited by monsters “that does not exist beyond the photographer’s imagination.” Here, at some distance from the individual traditions, we can take time with Yokai masks, hides, staffs, and instruments on a purely visual level, and, in so doing, perhaps get closer to Fréger’s idea of becoming something else.
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