Circus: horses and clowns

Combining two standard circus acts, this print stages clowns alongside horses within the ring, letting Kawanishi balance the heavy massed forms of the animals against the angular, brightly costumed figures of the clowns. The composition is typical of his circus prints: flat planes of saturated color — vermillion, indigo, ochre, deep green — laid down without tonal modulation, edges defined by carved contour rather than ink line. This treatment foregrounds the printmaking process itself, since each color corresponds to a separately carved block printed in registration onto [washi](/glossary/washi). The lively subject contrasts with the contemplative [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) and snowscape subjects elsewhere in his catalogue, demonstrating the breadth of [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga)'s claim that any subject was viable for the modern print. The circus also functioned as a thematic counterpart to his harbor scenes: both registered the transit of foreign forms — ships, performers, fashions — through Kobe. As a sosaku-hanga artist, Kawanishi carved and printed the work himself, embodying the jihitsu jiga jisaku ideal that distinguished the movement from the publisher-led [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) school.