Meeting the Yokai

Fee: $60
Members: 10 % discount
— includes General Garden admission, all sumi-e art materials, and a free pass to Yokai Night ($30 value)
Space is limited to 20 guests — advance registration required.
Yokai (妖怪) are the spirits, shapeshifters, and strange beings of Japanese folklore — not quite ghosts, not quite monsters, but something in between. For over a thousand years, Japan has told stories about these beings who live at the edge of what we understand. Join us for a morning exploring this rich tradition through storytelling and brushwork. Dr. James Baskind, scholar of Japanese Buddhist thought and Fellow at the University of Arizona's Center for Buddhist Studies, opens the morning with a lecture on yokai, key scholars of the tradition, and the tsukumogami — everyday objects said to awaken into spirits. He is followed by Eriko Saxon Fujiyoshi, the Garden's Education Curator, who leads a hands-on sumi-e ink painting workshop bringing the morning's stories to the brush.

Schedule & Content:
9:30 AM – Lecture (~30 min): "Meeting the Yokai" with Dr. James Baskind — an introduction to what yokai are, key scholars who studied them (Hearn, Inoue Enryō, Komatsu Kazuhiko), and the tsukumogami — everyday objects said to awaken into spirits
10:00 AM – Sumi-e Workshop: Hands-on ink brush painting, guided by Eriko Saxon Fujiyoshi
11:30 AM – Program concludes