The Beautiful Legs Shrine is part of Maboroshi Hakurankai, a quirky museum in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Maboroshi Hakurankai, or Phantom Exhibition, is a display of creepy, salacious and off-beat art in Ito city, a 2½-hour drive south of Tokyo in seaside Shizuoka prefecture.
The private exhibition, which opened 13 years ago, has clowns, vintage toys and mannequins, including two of Marilyn Monroe. It’s a perfect stop for anyone interested in the quirkier aspects of Japanese culture. Its website describes the place as “creepy and cute.”
Be advised, this exposition includes explicit content inappropriate for children and other displays that people with automatonophobia — the fear of human-like figures — may find disturbing, such as mannequins, wax figures and dummies.
Visitors are given maps for the self-guided tour. They are printed in Japanese, so make sure you have a translator app handy.
The exhibit has eight zones, such as the Great Buddha Hall and Through the Showa Era. While each has a theme, the displays seem chaotic and lack rhythm or rhyme. The tour seems like a walk through a fever dream.
Maboroshi Hakurankai boasts the world’s largest statue of Prince Shotoku, standing at 164 feet. He was an influential leader in seventh-century Japan and popularly credited with encouraging the spread of Buddhism. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
The Great Buddha Hall is impressive. Visitors stroll through jungle-like vegetation with exhibits from ancient Japan and Egypt. The highlight is the world’s largest statue of Prince Shotoku, standing at 164 feet. He was an influential leader in 7th-century Japan, and popularly credited with encouraging the spread of Buddhism.
The Phantom Shrine — Festival Night is one of the raunchiest of the exhibits. It includes nude mannequins involved in sexual acts, nude mannequins with clear stomachs that display the pregnancy cycle and displays of skulls and skeletons of various animals.
The Phantom Island is outside and contains a Beautiful Legs Shrine, which is just a shrine composed of a mannequin leg in black pantyhose where guests toss change for good luck. The Phantom Island Stage features mannequins on a stage in suggestive poses.
Tipsy Alley displays nostalgic toys, including Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse and a Furby. Many of the toys look worn, torn and in otherwise bad condition, which adds to the creepy aspect of the exhibit.
The Through the Showa Era exhibit is an interesting collection of objects that the owner collected through Japan’s prewar time to the 1980s.
Maboroshi Hakurankai has clowns, vintage toys and mannequins, including two of Marilyn Monroe. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Mannequins are dressed in Japanese clothes from the era. Two Marilyn Monroe mannequins are posed in the famous white dress from the film “The Seven Year Itch.”
Vintage movie posters from American and Japanese films of the era are also on display, from 1954’s “Godzilla” to 1984’s “Amadeus.”
A gift shop sells T-shirts; Licca-chan, the Japanese version of Barbie; heads on lanyards; and miniature doll bodies with the heads removed.
If your appetite for the absurd is not sated at Maboroshi Hakurankai, visit its sister site, Ayashii Shonen Shojo Museum, which translates to The Mysterious Boys and Girls, just a six-minute drive away. It’s an oddball collection of cultural artifacts from the Meiji through the Showa periods, including dolls, books, recordings and other artifacts, according to its website.
Maboroshi Hakurankai is a perfect stop for anyone interested in the quirkier aspects of Japanese culture. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
On the QT
Directions: 1310-1 Futo, Ito, Shizuoka, 413-0231. By car, take the C4 expressway, Route 468, to Ebina, exit and take Route 271 to Route 1. Follow it to the E84 expressway, Route 135, and continue to Ito. By rail the closest station is Izu-kogen.
Times: Open daily, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Costs: Admission is 1,200 yen, or about $7.63, for adults and 600 yen for middle and elementary school students.
Food: There are a couple of restaurants within a one to five-minute drive from the museum.
