The world of Yuichiro Ukai is a densely intricate universe teeming with supernatural beings such as yōkai, samurais, dinosaurs, Pokémon characters, animals, humans and skeletons from ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
These entities, seemingly borrowed from dreams or perhaps escaped from a nightmarish vision, are the result of a clash between Japanese art and the surrealism of Hieronymus Bosch, and bridge the gap between the East and the West. 
While Ukai finds joy and satisfaction in his unique artistic creations, there is another facet of his life that brings him a sense of fulfillment – his job cleaning restrooms. 
Born in 1995, Ukai has been a member of Atelier Yamanami since 2014. Situated in Shiga Prefecture, east of Kyoto, Atelier Yamanami operates as a facility for individuals with neurodiversity or disabilities, providing them opportunities to engage in artistic endeavors or do various jobs, from material collection for recycling to maintenance work. 
The artists at Atelier Yamanami, including Ukai, actively participate in exhibitions, events, and workshops, challenging societal ableism and highlighting the value of celebrating the creativity of all individuals. 
Although Ukai communicates sparingly verbally, his drawings burst with a chaotic sense of life.
He draws inspiration from used magazines and books collected at the facility, often donated by staff or visitors. Occasionally, collectors who have acquired Ukai's works send materials, hoping he can use them as references.
You can bet that he will soon find more collectors: at the moment Ukai has indeed got an exhibition at New York's Venus Over Manhattan (until 13th January 2024), organized in collaboration with the Kyoto gallerist Yukiko Koide of Yukiko Koide Presents.
The presentation, including 14 new works, marks Ukai's first solo exhibition with the gallery, and follows a recent acquisition of his work by the American Folk Art Museum in New York.
The drawings, conceived as one continuous work, unfold from right to left, resembling a horizontal scroll or emakimono. Each drawing, measuring 73.7 x 82.5 centimeters, showcases a multitude of figures on a brown paper background. You can spot among them characters from Pokémon and Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away; then Anpanman, Doraemon, GeGeGe no Kitaro, and other manga and anime characters produced in Japan. Ukai also integrated in recent artworks Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.
This long scroll featuring a vast crowd, calls to mind the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons and the Night Parade of One Hundred Tools.
Both from the 15th century, these scrolls respectively featured monsters and demons or miscellaneous daily utensils and tools used by craftsmen transformed and drawn as 35 playful monsters.
In the catalogue to this exhibition, Kenjiro Hosaka, Director at the Shiga Museum of Art, states that Ukai's works could be interpreted as a parody of the Hyakki Yagyo Emaki, that was in turn a visual parody of a tale from the 10th century about demons marching through the city streets at night.
Yet Ukai goes beyond the demons and anthropomorphic tools, adding more figures and filling the entire sheet (whereas the scrolls still presented wide empty margins).
According to Hosaka, the artist also reimagined illustrations like the one of the bakeneko (shapeshifting cat) from "The Story of Nippondaemon and the Cat" (1847) by the "eccentric ukiyo-e master" Utagawa Kuniyoshi, who probably inspired Ukai also his skeleton motifs (from Kuniyoshi's "In the Ruined Palace at Soma"). 
There is also another element that characterizes Ukai, distinguishing him from original ukiyo-e – the use of colours.
Originally Ukai was given by the staff at Atelier Yamanami only twelve colours, but never used them. It was only when they offered him 200 different colored pencils, that he started filling his drawings as if he had precise hues in his mind, almost predetermined shades, but wasn't able to express them correctly with a limited range of pencils. 
There's a lot of potential behind these sequential images that combine Japanese mythology and folklore with contemporary cultures and subcultures: and you know these are the sort that may be co-opted by fashion designers as prints for collections.
But there are many more creative minds to discover at Atelier Yamanami, each bringing their unique perspective to the art scene, so check the atelier's site to explore their work.
Image credits for this post
1.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 51), 2022
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
2.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 52), 2022
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
3.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 53), 2022
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
4.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 54), 2022
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
5.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 55), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
6.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 56), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
7.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 57), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
8.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 58), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
9.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 59), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
10.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 60), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
11.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 61), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
12.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 62), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
13.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 63), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
14.
Yuichiro Ukai
Untitled (No. 64), 2023
Colored pencil, marker and ink on cardboard
73.7 x 82.5 cm
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