I came here during my first time in Osaka in November 2011 (check here). But this time I came to see in the Osaka Museum of history an extensive exhibition of old Japanese ghost story illustrations. I'm interested in this dark side of Japanese imagination. Although times are different now from, say Heian-era thousand years ago and the world is not such a dark and scary room of unconsciousness anymore, still the belief in spirits both good and evil lives strong in Japan. But can the ghosts really find their places in these over populated cities of glass? Are the many preserved and restored old buildings rather sanctuaries for the refugee spirits than monuments for the living to visit?
For me, the natural world as it is suffices and sometimes exceeds in producing the deepest experiences I can possibly hope to have. Super-natural is over-rated.
Osaka, April 29th:
