Shôki
'demon hunter'
Shôki is a Japanese mythological character. He is depicted as a samurai, a huge warrior who hunts for devils and demons,beheading them with his sword.
One of the basictenets of the Japanese (oral) religious Shinto cult is the presupposition of a basic conflict within creation. Mutually contradictory forces created the world and for this reason our world is in a perennial state of turmoil. The continuous clash of the opposite creative drives produces 'evil': a state of confusion, disorder, uncertainty and great anxiety. Our world is divided along the lines of the very co-ordinates which create it. And the so called powers of evil (devils, demons and the like) are therefore nothing but materialisations of the intensity of conflict between spiritually opposite directions. Human existence is determined by a basic conflict which continually engenders fear, hate and violence.
Shôki, the mythological warrior, eliminates evil and symbolises the possibility to overcome division, fear and anxiety. He also marks the dawning of a conscious experience of the complex situation in our world. Overcoming basic dualism and hatred, this mythological figure brings peace as initiator of a spiritual awakening on earth.
Website © Irène Prinsen, visitors of this site are reminded that the exhibited works and commentaries are subject to copyright law. For use of works of visual artists affiliated with a CISAC-organisation, other than consultation via Internet, permission is required from Pictoright, visuele auteursrechten Nederland.