Charles Fréger's exhibition at Hermès was so great! He took photos of villagers from all around Japan dressed in funny & scary costumes that represent "yōkai".
Some of the costumes looked so strange and frightening, this made me realize that the weird & crazy Japanese mascots we see today are nothing new for Japan.
I think he spent 4 years on this project. His research team must be so good to find all these interesting costumes in deep Japan.
Towards the end of the exhibition, you can see his photographs of European costumes from his Wilder mann series mixed with Japanese costumes. Japan & Europe are so far apart geographically yet the Japanese & European costumes have so many similarities.
