The world of the minga, "folk painting," is one of subtle beauty created by the countless unknown artists who draw on rich crafts traditions for inspiration. The end result of these unknown artists is refreshingly simple, unaffected works of art. Opportunities to view the work of these unheralded artists up close are unfortunately quite rare.

Small wonder then, that the local art community's interest has been piqued by "The World of Folk Painting: Minga no Sekai," a special exhibition of minga currently on display until Dec. 19 at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. The exhibition, which features 238 folk paintings from Japan, Korea, China and India, provides a tantalizing overview of this oeuvre of Asian art.

Among the Japanese folk paintings in this exhibition are excellent examples of Otsu-e painting. These paintings were produced extensively in the area around Otsu in Shiga Prefecture beginning in the early 17th century, and were collected by travelers as souvenirs of their visit to the Otsu post station along the Old Tokaido road linking Kyoto with Edo (Tokyo).

The subjects of the Otsu-e paintings varied from religious figures to beautiful women, heroes and mythical creatures. Anonymous painters created a prodigious numbers of these paintings and sold them along the roadside. Produced for mass consumption, the paintings were drawn on rough brown paper, using a limited number of mineral pigments, usually including blue, red, green and white.

Drawings were outlined first in ink, then filled in with color. Woodblock printing was sometimes used instead of hand drawing to allow for more rapid production. Local families of craftsmen used the same compositions and motifs repeatedly, creating a local pool of artwork with similar themes.

The paintings in the exhibition display a warmth of human feeling and simplicity not seen in the elaborate artwork of formalized paintings and other art created for the privileged.

One of the most humorous Otsu-e paintings in the show, "Goblin Taking a Bath," is an 18th-century work in which a goblin is stepping into a hot bath. To keep them from getting wet, the goblin has hung his clothes on a black cloud that floats over his head. Like so many Otsu-e, the painting stylizes human behavior. The goblin, representing a foolish human, provides us with an important moral lesson: Even if you clean your body, a bath cannot clean your soul.

Parallel to the production of Otsu-e painting in Japan were the Korean folk paintings of the Yi Dynasty (1392-1910). In the folk tradition, these were also produced by anonymous artists and depicted themes of everyday life and moral tales. Unlike the Otsu-e painters, who hawked their art along post roads, Korean folk painters traveled from village to village taking small commissions to create custom-made artwork in private homes.

For their subject matter, Korean folk painters often drew from Confucian ideology, the state ideology of the Yi Dynasty, creating didactic folk paintings called munjjia-kurim in Korean, and known as moji-e in Japanese, that illustrate one of the eight tenets of Confucian ideology. Each of the pictures is composed of a stylized ideogram for one of the eight fundamental concepts: filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty to the king, faith, propriety, justice, honor and humility. Symbolic elements, such as a carp and bamboo shoots, are incorporated into the paintings.

In Yi Dynasty Korea, munjjia-kurim paintings were typically displayed in boys' rooms as a way to teach Confucian values through art. One of the most popular motifs for these paintings was the carp. The symbolism, used to illustrate filial piety, dates back to a famous Confucian tale in which a boy tries to catch a carp for his sick mother. Although the river is frozen, he melts it with his warm tears, and is finally able to catch the carp and cure his mother's illness. Such tales were believed to help male heirs appropriately and inculcate them with values that would ensure the family line.

In addition to the splendid array of folk-art paintings, "The World of Folk Painting" exhibition includes a special six-panel screen from the Edo Period (1603-1868). Rarely exhibited, the screen is the highlight of the show. It magnificently depicts "The Tale of Oheyama," a popular tale about a battle with demons. Progressing in a counter-clockwise direction from the lower left corner of the screen, the story starts with a group of mighty warriors who have disguised themselves as mountain priests.

At the beginning of this pictorial journey, they are walking alongside a river as they set out for Oheyama, a mountain that is home to demons. The tale reaches a climax as a red drunken demon is beheaded by a warrior with a sword blessed by a deity. It is highly unusual for such stories to be depicted on multipanel screens, as the favored medium for Japanese popular tales were painted on emaki (hand scrolls).

Also worth noting is the expressions of the demons. Appropriate to the highly personal nature of folk-art, they do not fit the image we have found in other art forms, such as religious iconographic paintings. Rather than the typical frightening countenance assigned to demons in other types of Japanese art, these creatures appear animated with friendly faces. They are intimate and approachable.

The folk-art paintings of this exhibition serve to remind us of this tradition's appeal and its anonymous painters. Produced for the common people, they were not intended to be displayed as great works of art with seals and signs, but as examples of social commentary, ideology and satire. They reflect simple lives filled with joy and appreciation. Moreover, they allow us a peek into fantasy worlds and lives far removed from our own, yet at the same time oddly familiar and humanistic in their appeal.