monster shrines top

Celebrating important events with fun, colossal terror!

For those who have never seen a Japanese festival in action before, it’s quite the experience. Along with music and dancing filling the streets, there’re usually people carrying giant “portable shrines” featuring everything from samurai and dragons to Gundam mecha to… well, phalluses.

But when it comes to family-friendly portable shrines, it doesn’t get much better than Tokyo University of the Arts’ recent creations. To celebrate the blooming of Ueno Park’s cherry blossoms, they brought out these unbelievable monsters:

▼ “Tokyo University of the Art’s portable shrines were displayed at Ueno Park.
That giant salamander is so cool.”

▼ Good luck getting rid of this salamander from your doorstep!

monster shrine salamander 01

▼ “Hello tasty snack!”

monster shrine salamander 03

▼ A tiny human sitting on top of it, to show scale.

monster shrine salamander 04

▼ Hey thanks for carrying that shrine on your back, giant white boar!

monster shrine boar 01

▼ Er, I mean… yes, I can carry it instead. If you insist….

monster shrine boar 02

▼ Seems like the boar has a soft spot for those who bring smaller,
golden boars to appease him.

monster shrine boar 04

▼ Sometimes you just gotta grab the bull by the horns…

monster shrine bull 01

▼ …but not when the bull is erupting forth out of a mountain.

monster shrine bull 03

▼ So this is what happened to all those dead Tamagotchis….

monster shrine egg 02

▼ We’ve seen this guy before, and now he’s back, crushing temples as usual.

monster shrine octopus 01

▼ Yup, still crushing temples from this side too.

monster shrine octopus 02

▼ “That human would be in so much trouble
if I didn’t enjoy crushing temples so much!”

monster shrine octopus 05

Seeing giant festival shrines like that would get me pumped for anything. Blooming cherry blossoms, Brussels sprout harvest, paperclip sale at the local office supply store…you name it. If these monsters were there, I would be too.

If you want to see more work by students at Tokyo University of the Arts, then check out the Six Realms of Buddhism as Whales exhibit that they put up earlier this year. The whales may not be as big as these portable shrine monsters, but they’re no less gorgeous to look at.

Source: Twitter/@kurodamasa via CuRAZY
Images: Twitter/@kurodamasa