CHUBEI_YAGYU:::profile

Chubei Yagyu

I like to call myself a yōkai artist. Yōkai is a Japanese term for preternatural creatures used in Japanese folklore to explain strange, supernatural or unaccountable phenomena. They have been used as motifs for toys and pictures since the 1600s and are often found as characters in popular manga or anime. Originally, however, I think that yōkai were closely linked to the night and darkness.
In a world without electric light, Japanese people feared what lurked in the darkness, sensing things with potentially dangerous powers in the night or in strange occurrences. Just as they associated light with the divine and worshipped it, they were likewise awed by darkness and aware of invisible movement within it.
Yōkai have been depicted as enemies of light, bringers of harm or simply as pranksters. Personally, I wonder if they aren’t some kind of messenger.

They attract me and also shape and inspire my means of expression.

■Biography
1976 　Born on Shodoshima, an island in Kagawa prefecture, Japan.
1998　 Graduated from Takarazuka University of Art and Design
Worked for Kanoshojuan Co., Ltd., a Japanese confectionary, designing packaging.
2005 to the present: Artist

■Exhibitions
2005 Solo Exhibition, Kagawa
2006 Solo Exhibition: Chubei’s Yōkai Exhibition, Kagawa
Solo Exhibition: Chubei’s Yōkai Pictures, Kagawa
Event: Bedtime Picture Stories, Kagawa
Event: T-Shirt Spirit Exhibition, Kagawa
Nov. 2006～Feb. 2007 Sakaide Police Station Art Project
2007 Group Exhibition: Washindenshin /Za-Sitting, Enko/Suzaki Temple, Kagawa
Solo Exhibition: Bakebake, Seira Gallery, Tokyo
Group Exhibition: Washindenshin /Wa-Peace, Suzaki Temple, Kagawa
2008 Solo Exhibition: Enkai, Urinsha, Kyoto
Collaborative Event: Wa-gokoro Exhibition, Watanabe-tei, Kagawa
2009 Solo Exhibition: Enkai, Atrantico Gallery SHIBUYA/KAMEFUKU, Tokyo