A long-time Hartnell ceramics teacher shows off her treasures spanning more than two decades.

Pam Murakami’s new exhibit, Memories, Spirits and Heroes at Hartnell College Gallery in Salinas, is more than a collection. It’s the whole ceramic world of personalized Japanese mythology, inhabited by creatures like kappa, one of many yōkai, a reptilian water demon who kidnaps babies at worst or delights in silly pranks at best.

Yōkai are waiting on the bottom of Murakami’s bowls, vessels and in sculptures just like they used to in streams and on forest paths, or in everyday household items, like an iron or a teapot.

“Some items can survive years, there is something supernatural about them,” Murakami says about old teapots. Other creatures live their lives openly on her sushi plates, sometimes humanoid in appearance, stretching their prolonged limbs, cats with two tails as their companions.

Murakami’s childhood was filled with Japanese folk stories. “Hawaii, where I was born, is a very spiritual place,” she says. There were many ghost stories, including about ghost cats, which are considered ultimate shapeshifters. In their ceramic life, cats and cat-like creatures encounter other images and objects that fill Murakami’s mind and memories, such as images of her hero, Yasser Arafat, and antihero, Donald Trump.

“I never thought of myself as a political person,” Murakami says. She adds that she hopes Trump will have a happy encounter with one of the yōkai since they are not really demons, just mischief-makers. In her opinion, he could really use one.

In terms of the recurring images of Arafat, “I believe that Palestinians should be given better treatment,” Murakami says. At some point, she started collecting newspaper clippings and studying his images. “I’m fascinated by his head, the way he dresses.”

Murakami majored in sculpture at the University of Hawaii and earned her master’s in fine arts from the University of the Philippines. She moved to Monterey County in the 1970s and has taught ceramics part-time at Hartnell for the last 35 years.

“I feel honored, vulnerable and a little exposed,” the artist says of the exhibit. “Because I’m not sure how people will react to the creatures that I have so much affection for.”

MEMORIES, SPIRITS AND HEROES is on display Monday-Thursday (9-11am and 3-5:30pm) through Thursday, March 2. Hartnell College Gallery, 411 Central Ave., Salinas. 755-6793.

This article was corrected on Feb. 17, 2023 to reflect the correct spelling of a first name. It is Pam Murakami, not Pat Murakami.