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

From the Kyôsai hyakuzu series, this print reflects Kyosai's sustained engagement with Buddhist iconography and supernatural folklore. Subject matter across the series ranges from fierce Fudô Myôô to playful animal parodies of human behavior, and prints in this numeric range frequently depict creatures from Japanese ghost lore — elongated yūrei with trailing robes, or shape-shifting kitsune caught mid-transformation. Kyosai's compositional instincts, trained under both Utagawa Kuniyoshi and the Kanô school, produce figures of unusual anatomical energy: limbs extended beyond conventional proportion, facial expressions exaggerated toward the grotesque. The woodblock rendering on [washi](/glossary/washi) captures ink-wash gradations through fine [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) passages that soften contours while preserving the underlying drawing's vitality.