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

This print from the Kyôsai hyakuzu series demonstrates the range of subject matter that distinguished it from single-theme woodblock series of the period. Rather than landscape, bijin-ga, or actor portraiture, Kyosai assembled compositions from the full span of Japanese visual culture — classical poetry illustration, Chinese legend, popular street life, and supernatural folklore — binding them through consistency of graphic approach rather than thematic unity. This entry may depict a figure from classical literature or a scene from one of the Chinese novels that circulated widely in Edo-period Japan. Kyosai's figures in such literary subjects combine Chinese painting conventions absorbed through his Kanô training with the dramatic outline weight of ukiyo-e, printed on washi with bokashi sky passages and selective mineral pigment accents.