With a focus on local festivals, one of the cultural cornerstones of community in Japan, this exhibition aims to delve into local life and culture, contribute to the promulgation of local history and the evaluation of cultural artifacts, and encourage activity by local residents. With this year hit by the pandemic, the exhibition also played an important role in sweeping away the cooped-up feeling caused by the cancellation of the Kanda Festival and creating an opportunity for local people to mingle and socialize. Under the theme “prayers for dispelling epidemics,” the exhibition looked into the effect that outbreaks of infectious diseases had on Edo life and culture and provided a picture of the people of Edo trying to overcome these scourges in a creative way through an assortment of wisdom, ingenuity and culture. In addition to a specially-created map of prayer spots based on the “Edo shinbutsu gankake chôhôki” (an 1814 treasury of invocations to deities and buddhas in Edo), a display of dolls and surimono commissioned prints and hoso-e and hashika-e (color prints that functioned as charms against smallpox and measles respectively) from the Yoshitoku Collection, the exhibition also featured an initiative to invoke Mugidono Daimyojin, a god who combats measles, in an updated version of the god as a basketwork figure.
Together with specially written columns by supervisor Naoyuki Kinoshita (Director of the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art), and Masaya Takiguchi
(A Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Rikkyo University), the exhibition provided some highly specialized and comprehensive offerings. For the event, the supervisors also gave a gallery talk for visitors and online participants. On the special website, organizer tried to enhance the online experience as well by featuring a gallery of 360 °photographs and a ‘making-of’ video as well as the written columns.