Meeting the Yokai

Dr. James Baskind is leading a morning session on Japanese folklore at the Japanese Friendship Garden on Sunday, October 25, from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. The event, titled Meeting the Yokai, starts with a lecture on yokai and tsukumogami and ends with a hands-on sumi-e workshop.

Yokai are the shapeshifters and spirits that have haunted the edges of Japanese folklore for over a thousand years. They run the full gamut: playful tricksters, protective spirits, eerie ghosts, and full-blown monsters. Traditionally, they were used to explain the unexplained, teach moral lessons, or just entertain through storytelling. Many of these legends began in Japan's oral traditions and later appeared in illustrated scrolls, literature, and woodblock prints during the Edo period, from 1603 to 1868. The morning session also introduces tsukumogami—household objects that gain a spirit after years of service. Once the lecture wraps, the workshop lets you bring those stories to the brush with sumi-e, traditional ink wash painting.

Tickets are $60, with a 10% discount for members. That covers general garden admission, all the sumi-e art materials you'll need for the workshop, and a free pass to Yokai Night, which is a $30 value on its own. The garden is at 1125 N 3rd Ave in Phoenix.