Onigokko – The Night of Yokai Hunt
The Indo-Japan Research Center (IJRC) hosted the event ‘Onigokko – The Night of Yokai Hunt’ on November 27, 2023, at the MIHAN campus of Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur (IIMN). With the aim to promote cultural collaboration and bring a glimpse of Japan on the campus of IIMN, the event introduced the dreadful and fearsome spirits, demons and supernatural creatures known as Yokai in Japan to students of IIMN.
The term ‘Yokai’, often translated as ‘monster’ or ‘ghost’, encompasses a wide range of entities with diverse habits and characteristics. These entities are an integral part of Japanese folklore and their stories have been passed through generations in Japan.
The event kicked off with an animated presentation on Yokai, giving participants an idea of different types of Yokai, their habits and characteristics, followed by an interactive hunt. Participants were divided into teams and given riddles about Yokai characteristics to solve. Each correct answer led to a clue about a location on campus. Teams decoded the clues, scanned QR codes at different locations, and unraveled more Yokai mysteries.
Throughout the hunt, participants had to watch out for Yokai roaming the campus. A touch from a Yokai temporarily side-lined a participant, who were instructed to run if they spotted one. The chase and run in the campus gave a thrilling and exhilarating experience to participants in the event.
After solving four riddles of the Yokai found at different locations in the campus, the teams were given the clue of the final location. At the ultimate location, the Yokai stood guard of the ‘moon’, that held the culmination of all the powers that Yokai enjoyed in the campus.
The final challenge involved decoying the Yokai guarding the ‘moon’ and bringing it back to the starting location with a minimum of three participants of the team.
The event concluded with the successful completion of the hunt, fostering cultural understanding among participants as they immersed themselves in the intriguing world of Yokai from Japanese folklore.
‘Onigokko – The Night of Yokai Hunt’ was the first event organized by the newly inducted Junior team of 2023-25 batch marking a promising start for more such events of IJRC to come in the future.