Today I read an article published by NPR and written on October 20, 2022 by Vanessa Romo titled, "A high school student's mural angers parents over what they say are hidden messages." I'm a little late to the party, as this article was written almost three years ago, but I want to respond to the event discussed in the article. Click here to read the NPR article before you read my response.
First, I want to thank NPR for their sensitive and empathetic reporting on this topic. The following is a brief summary of the situation as reported by NPR:
School district officials and a high school student in Michigan have drawn the ire of parents who allege that a painted mural contains LGBTQ propaganda, a depiction of Satan and a message of witchcraft.
The painting covers a wall inside a teen health center at Grant Middle School in Grant, Mich., and was created by a local high school sophomore who won a competition.
When I look at this mural, I see standard images that would be expected in a children's health center: anthropomorphized animals dressed as nurses administering care, smiling kids, and a few images from popular culture, like Hatsune Miku and Hello Kitty. This is a cheerful mural and it looks a lot like something I may have submitted to a contest when I was a young teen.
Now, I'm not even going to address the homophobic comments from some of the "parents" (or possibly community members who insert themselves into discussions centered around kids -- this happens far too frequently). If you know me you know that I do not tolerate hate speech and will not give a platform to people who use hate speech. I applaud the Grant Middle School administrators for doing the right thing by also disregarding the hate speech presented to them. The NPR article reports:
"At Grant Public Schools, we are committed to promoting civility, respect, understanding and inclusion. We do not condone, and we will not tolerate discrimination, harassment or bullying whether in word, deed or on social media," a district statement read.
What I do want to address is the following assertion: "Throughout much of the meeting, incensed parents claimed the artist intentionally subverted the mural's "Stay Healthy" theme to promote anti-Christian messages." This claim refers specifically to one small doodle to the right of the brown nurse bunny, which adults claimed was a depiction of Satan. Many of my regular readers may already know by this point where I'm going with this blog post. The image in question, when viewed by a regular gamer or by anyone who is even half-way familiar with Japanese mythology, is clearly an Oni mask. The teen who drew the picture was likely referencing Fortnite, a game that is extremely popular with younger audiences. In Fortnite, "Oni Masks are a type of item and a gameplay mechanic [. . . that] were introduced in Chapter 6: Season 1." (Source: Fortnite Wiki) In fact, the artist even said something to this effect when she addressed her adult bullies:
The student explained that the so-called Satan mask is a character from a video game and that the painted hand is a Latino symbol of protection. She eventually left the meeting in tears.
While the artist may have simply been referencing Fortnite or another game that evokes Oni imagery, I feel that the accusations made in the meeting were also insulting towards Japanese culture as a whole. Note that I am not Japanese. I am just a humble scholar who studies literature and folklore from a variety of cultures. While I can't speak for Japanese people, I can defend non-European cultures against blatant Christianity-oriented bigotry.
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| Sessen Doji Offering His Life to an Ogre (Japanese Oni), hanging scroll, color on paper, c. 1764. Painting by Soga Shōhaku (1730–1781). |
The Oni is a common image in Japanese mythology that dates back to at least the Heian period (794–1185). (source: Wikipedia). While oni are frightening creatures, often depicted as evil, it would be unfair to the culture to compare them to Satan, which is a Christian construct. Translators in the past have often translated the term "oni" to the English word "demon," but modern best practices would tell us that this is a poor translation practice, as you cannot equivocate Japanese Buddhist and Shinto cultures with western Christianity. Michael Dylan Foster writes in his work The Book of Yokai, "[R]eligion in Japan is notoriously complex; the very idea of "religion" as such is really a modern "invention." (Foster 20) This means that a person who was raised in the Christian (or any other monotheistic) religion may have difficulty understanding concepts from Japanese religion and folklore.
Parents and other ignorant adults have been disparaging innocent pop culture like this for years. Probably since the beginning of human history. I have memories from the 1990s of my child-self having to defend video games against overly critical adults who were offended even by depictions of angels... because angels were "new age." (Wait, aren't angels from the bible? I can't make these arguments make sense.) See "satanic panic" for more on parents going wild in the '90s.
How can we, as a society, quell the fears and bigotry of the average parent and citizen? One idea I have is that schools could, or perhaps should, bring in experts to speak to parents and explain concepts that may be new or foreign to them. The Michigan school discussed in this post could have brought in an (adult) expert on video games, pop culture, or folklore to explain concepts like oni, or other mythological imagery used in the mural. I believe that education is the best way to combat ignorance, and a calm, patient talk from a credible expert could do wonders to help people understand things with which they are unfamiliar. I am not the only person in the world using my degrees to study and write about popular culture. Colleges and universities the world over have begun to introduce programs about video games, film studies, and the like. If you are a school administrator and you would like to hire me to speak to your parents, faculty, or staff, feel free to contact me at the email address provided here. I am available for online meetings and local (North Georgia area) short speaking engagements.
Works Consulted and Suggested Further Reading:
Foster, Michael Dylan. The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. University of California Press, 2015.
Nishimoto, Keisuke. Strange Tales from Japan: 99 Chilling Stories of Yokai, Ghosts, Demons and the Supernatural. Translated by William Scott Wilson, Tuttle Publishing, 2021.
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