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- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Image courtesy of
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
Description
An untitled print by Kawanabe Kyosai, likely issued as part of a loosely grouped set or as a single commercial sheet. Kyosai was prolific and produced prints for a wide range of publishers and occasions throughout the Meiji period, often returning to favourite motifs — frogs, crows, foxes in priestly robes, demons in comic situations. The colour palette characteristic of Meiji-era printmaking would rely on aniline dyes introduced after the 1860s, producing more vivid reds and purples than the earlier beni pigments, a shift Kyosai embraced selectively. The washi support would carry impressions from multiple blocks registered carefully against the kento corner marks standard in Japanese woodblock printing.