-

This untitled Kawanabe Kyosai woodblock print occupies the intersection of pictorial satire and traditional subject matter that defined his popular appeal during the Meiji era. Having been arrested in 1870 for allegedly producing anti-government caricatures, Kyosai was well aware of the political charge that imagery could carry, and his later prints often wrapped social commentary in the costume of folklore, mythology, or classical literature. The composition, drawn onto woodblocks by specialist craftsmen (eshi) working from Kyosai's brush designs, would display the elastic, gestural line quality that set his work apart from the more careful draftsmanship of his contemporaries in the Utagawa school.