It’s been compared to a psychedelic trip, and the latest video game, but Basil Twist’s dazzling hour-long abstract journey through mind-bending optical illusions and mythical beasts  – which he likes to describe as “a sliding, gliding, horizontal game of suspense, concealment, revelation and transformation” – is derived from a form of Japanese puppet theater that is said to have been born hundreds of years ago in the Awa region of Japan. The genre is called “Dogugaeshi,” and that’s the title Twist has given his show, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Twist has produced other masterpieces of abstract puppetry — most notably Symphonie Fantastique. (He also created the Dementors in Harry Potter.) But “Dogugaeshi” has toured more than anything else Twist has done, traveling the world (including to Japan.) It is now in a too-brief encore performance at the Japan Society, the venue where it debuted.

As Yumiko Tanaka or Yoko Reikano Kimura sing and play the shamisen (a string musical instrument) and the koto (a keyboard-like musical instrument), Twist and four other puppeteers behind the scenes, slide the endless series of screens, present the silhouettes of mountain climbers and canoe rowers, and introduce us to various wondrous creatures (white foxes and tigers, a dog-like creature, maybe a llama, certainly a dragon)

Below, a glimpse in photographs by Richard Termine and video of a show that needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Dogugaeshi is at Japan Society through September 19.