3600YAKO is a project that brings 36 Japanese artists together to share a new Japanese culture of Reiwa with the world. (Reiwa is the name of the new Japanese imperial era and represents auspicious harmony.) through the co-creation of a collectible NFT with 36 amazing Japanese artists and the theme of the art is "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons".
Our 36 artists are working on 10 different visual patterns for 12 different Yokai (Tengu, Kappa...etc) that come from Japanese folk stories. And we’re going to put the 10 visual patterns into a picture scroll that we call “Emaki” and make 3,600 of it. Each one of the Emaki is unique. A variety of visual effects will be applied to the picture scrolls to create a new collectible NFT that no one has yet seen, merging the good old Japanese style with the latest modern technology. You can call it “3600 YAKO (Saburoku-Yako)”.
Makimono: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
By Unknown author - ISBN 978-4-336-04778-6., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13279292
Have you ever seen Japanese picture scrolls called “Makimono”? This makimono is a very huge part of our Japanese history and culture, in fact, there is still a lot of mystery and things that we haven’t found out yet. So, what is it? An Emaki usually consists of two things, text and illustration. The text generally comes first and tells the story, then the Illustration shows many scenes from it. Most Emaki are made with Washi (Japanese traditional paper) if you might have heard of it.
Washi
Japanese folklore is really filled with mythical creatures. We call it “Yokai”. They look scary. but are really big parts of the culture. “Yokai” is sometimes called “demon” in other countries, but if you see the pictures posted below, you can feel the slight differences between them in terms of their visuals and the atmospheres. Very unique right?
Of course, there are actually many kinds of Yokai in Japanese Emaki history, and we have a total of 12 Japanese Yokai appearing in our NFT. So let me just introduce them.
By Brigham Young University - https://archive.org/details/bakemonozukushie00, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74833222
<aside> 👹 “Kappa” is an amphibious Yokai said to inhabit ponds or rivers in Japan. They are typically depicted as green and turtle-like feet. The description itself varies from region to region, but all Kappa has a small bowl-like dent on top of their heads that holds a small pool of water. The word “Kappa” translates roughly to “water child”. Some kappa just enjoys causing mischief and trouble towards humans, but some Kappa is dangerous and has been known to try to kidnap kids and eat them. What a scary guy...
</aside>
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1465905
<aside> 👹 “Tengu” is originally known as evil spirits that caused destruction wherever they went like carrying off monks and robbing temples, but they are seen as good or bad depending on the story. They are known as good protectors sometimes. All the Tengu has a red face with a long nose carrying a fan.
</aside>
By Unknown author - ISBN 978-4-336-04778-6., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13279292