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

This print from the Kyosai hyakuzu occupies one position in the anthology's survey of Kyosai's hundred subjects. The series was published at a moment when Kyosai's reputation had become fully established, and individual sheets circulate today as evidence of the breadth and inventiveness of his mature style. This entry may depict a comic or satirical subject — Kyosai was among the most accomplished practitioners of toba-e comic drawing in the Meiji period, and the hyakuzu includes examples of his lighter vein alongside serious devotional and warrior subjects. A scene of animals behaving as humans, or a single figure in a pose of comic self-importance, would sit comfortably within this strand of the anthology. Kyosai's comic figures are drawn with the same technical facility as his serious ones: the humor arises from subject and situation, not from any relaxation of drafting precision. The woodblock sheet is printed in multiple colors on washi with characteristic Meiji-period registration quality.