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
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Description
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.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai
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1863
Woodblock print
Kyosai, Royal Academy, London, FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING
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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
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Hoshifuri Pine at Zen'yoji Temple in Edogawa (Edogawa-ku Zen'yoji Hoshifuri matsu), from the series "One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era (Showa dai Tokyo fukei hyaku zue hanga)"
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1964
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Frequently Asked Questions
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.