Changing from an Ox to a Horse (Ushi o uma ni norikaeru), from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
- Series:
- One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- Image courtesy of
This second impression of the Kyôsai hyakuzu subject Ushi o uma ni norikaeru presents the same composition of mid-mount transfer with possible variation in color application or printing quality. The print plays on the Japanese idiomatic expression for changing course or switching allegiances by depicting the literal act of climbing from a slow-moving ox onto a horse. Such visual puns — taking a figurative phrase and rendering it with deadpan literalism — were central to Kyosai's comic method, a technique with roots in both kyôga (crazy pictures) and haikai poetry's verbal playfulness. The contrast between the patient, heavy ox and the restless horse provides visual comedy through their opposed temperaments, while the figure caught between them embodies the awkwardness of transition that the phrase metaphorically describes.
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Hebizukai
1932
Color woodblock print; oban
1935
Color woodblock print; oban
1964
Acrylic paint and oil pastel with oiled charcoal and ink over an ink and graphite underdrawing on paper
1964
Color lithograph with relief block and hand coloring; edition 35/36
Changing from an Ox to a Horse (Ushi o uma ni norikaeru), from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu) was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).
Yes — Changing from an Ox to a Horse (Ushi o uma ni norikaeru), from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu) is part of the One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai series by Kawanabe Kyosai.
Changing from an Ox to a Horse (Ushi o uma ni norikaeru), from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu) depicts animals.