Circus Horses

This [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) print depicts horses in performance, likely showing the under-the-big-top spectacle of a traveling circus, a subject that gained popularity in Japanese print culture during the Taisho and Showa periods as Western entertainment forms entered everyday urban life. Kawanishi's Fauvist-inflected palette — saturated reds, yellows, and blues unmoored from naturalistic constraint — would animate the motion of the animals and the theatrical atmosphere of the ring. Figures of riders or trainers likely appear in the composition, their costumes providing additional color incident. The horizontal momentum of circling horses suits a dynamic, diagonal compositional structure. As a sosaku-hanga work, the carving and printing were Kawanishi's own, allowing the texture of the [washi](/glossary/washi) and the modulation of pressure to contribute directly to the sense of movement.