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

From the Kyôsai hyakuzu series, this woodblock print belongs to a collection that publishers and audiences recognized as a compendium of Kyosai's characteristic invention. Individual designs in the series vary substantially in subject and mood—from the broadly comic to the macabre—but share a consistent visual language rooted in Kyosai's mastery of the brush. The ôban-format nishiki-e sheet was printed using the standard multi-block process: a keyblock establishing outlines and a variable number of color blocks providing flat tones and bokashi gradations. Kyosai's designs for this series are notable for the directness and economy of their compositions; complex spatial recession and elaborate background detail are subordinated to the central figure or group, which commands the pictorial field through forceful draftsmanship. This approach distinguishes the Hyakuzu prints from the landscape-oriented or crowd-filled theatrical prints of contemporaries, placing Kyosai's drawing rather than scenic spectacle at the center of each image.