Museumsportal Berlin

This exhibition presents a selection of objects from the generous and diverse donation, originally handed over to the museum in 1999, of contemporary examples of folk art taken from all prefectures in Japan. It gives visitors a good sense of how day-to-day objects are used as expressions of good wishes, as well as hopes for good health, long life, the passing of exams or the entering into new phases in life. These amulets are often placed in the entrance areas of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines as offerings to the appropriate ‘divine’ guardians or patrons.
The exhibition features amulets in the form of figures that are typically placed on view in various parts of the home as a form of protection from dirt, both inside and outside the household. This mixture of tradition and superstition, the playful approach to the often perfectly serious problems of everyday life, exemplifies how modern and traditional mindsets exist alongside one another in today’s Japan. A small wooden shrine containing masks, goblin figures and/or figures made of straw (used in autumn, as offerings for a good harvest) is pictured beside the towering modern building of a department store and embodies this daily juxtaposition of old and new.