“Japan. Dolls, Tales and Legends” exhibition

The exhibition project “Japan. Dolls, Tales and Legends” was created on the basis of the collection of author dolls “Mystical Stories”, which has been collected since 2008; since 2012, the project has existed as an exhibition, and in 2014 excursions and master classes began to be held. Since 2017, the project has been running on a permanent basis at the Kremlin in Izmailovo.

The main idea of the project is to get acquainted with the unique culture of Japan in order to understand how and why the Japanese islands inhabitants formed such original ideas about the world around them, and how a harmonious visual aesthetic was formed that leaves no one indifferent. How the ancient visions of the Japanese embodied in modern times and how this spread to all spheres of life in Japan and arouses interest all over the world.

The study of Japanese culture, traditions and folklore makes it possible to draw very interesting parallels to the ancient cultures of the peoples inhabiting Russia. Finding parallels to fairy tale and mythological plots and characters leads us to amazing discoveries and awakens interest in studying our own folklore. We believe that studying the culture and traditions of our neighbour, Japan, leads to better understanding and strengthens relations between our countries at the level of public diplomacy.

The project is educational, includes several excursions, workshops, lecture demonstrations and puppet theatre performances.

Guided tours and lecture programmes are prepared on the basis of numerous academic and popular sources, the basis of which are the recognized works of Orientalists, Japanese scholars and translators of the Russian and Soviet schools, and materials of Japanese publications and information resources. In a popular, interactive form, the programmes cover a large amount of information to build up a large-scale picture of the Japanese perceptions of their mythological and fabulous history, are illustrated with tales and many interesting facts from the country’s history and culture, and can be both adapted for the youngest visitors from 6 years old and for become more sophisticated for specialists who study Japan.