Now open through until June 30th on LEA19 is Hyakki Yagyou – Chaotic Parade. Curated by Yooma Mayo, this is a collaborative / shared space installation, featuring the work of 25 SL artists (see the installation poster at the end of this article for the names of all who participated), which draws its inspiration from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō.
Dating from the 1770’s, Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, “The Illustrated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons” was the first volume in an ehon by Toriyama Sekien, and which featured illustrations of assorted beasts, demons, ghosts, monsters and more, drawn (literally and figuratively) from assorted Japanese folklore, stories and artwork.
Sekien’s demonic parade, spread over a number of volumes, was not something you’d wish to encounter, as doing so could prove fatal or result in the procession laying claim to you, and carrying you away.
The parade at LEA19 features quite the menagerie winding its way up into the sky over the region. I confess to not being sufficiently familiar with all of the beasties and assorted demons and others from the original to say which among those spiralling upwards in Second Life are drawn directly from Japanese lore – although some educated guesses can be taken. However, it is fairly clear that a number of the demons here are from times a lot more recent that the 1770/1780s – which doesn’t make them any less fascinating to witness.
For those wishing to poke and pry some more into the individual creations, Yooma has provided a list of all the demons in the parade (broken down into three parts) listing their name and the artist responsible for creating them, together with a snapshot of the creature in question.
Rather than run through them here, what I will say is that this parade is an imaginative, vibrant swirl of colour and motion, each piece within it forming a unique part of the whole. Each of them is delightfully detailed – even the creepy-crawlies – and naturally draw you in and encourages careful camming and studying in order to capture it all. Doubtless when doing so, you’ll find you’ll have certain favourites among the gathering…
…Just be careful they also don’t decide to make you their favourite, and spirit you off forever on their nocturnal chaotic meanderings!
Related Links
- Hyakki Yagyou – Chaotic Parade SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
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