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- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Image courtesy of
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
Description
An untitled woodblock print from Kawanabe Kyosai's extensive catalogue, this sheet likely dates from the artist's mature Meiji-period production. Kyosai's prints in this range frequently draw on the vocabulary of his gacho (rapid sketching) practice, in which figures, animals, and demons were captured in a few decisive strokes before the design was handed to block-cutters. The resulting woodblock lines retain a spontaneity unusual in the medium. A two- or three-colour scheme was common for prints of this type, with indigo, red, and yellow ochre applied from separate blocks, each contributing to a design that reads as direct and immediate rather than labouriously built up.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai

Tenpôzan in Osaka: Viewing Children's Sumo (Naniwa Tenpôzan kodomo sumô shôran), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô
1863
Woodblock print

Kyosai, Royal Academy, London, FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING
2022
Original Museum Lithographic Exhibition Poster

from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print

Gontazaka, from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho no uchi
Woodblock print
Frequently Asked Questions
- was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).