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

Tengu — the winged, long-nosed supernatural beings of Japanese mountain folklore — appear throughout Kyōsai hyakuzu as emblems of supernatural power and martial mastery. Associated with the peaks of sacred mountains and with the training of legendary swordsmen, tengu carry fans of feathers or hawk feathers, wear the distinctive costume of mountain ascetics (yamabushi), and often brandish weapons. This print likely presents a tengu in a commanding pose, the great beak and piercing eyes rendered with the confident economy of Kyōsai's mature brushwork. The yamabushi robes — checkered or hexagonal-patterned textiles in indigo, white, and red — required careful color registration across multiple woodblocks. Tengu imagery in this series reflects Kyōsai's interest in the intersection of Shinto, esoteric Buddhism, and popular supernatural belief that characterized much of mid-Meiji Japanese religious culture. The figure's feathered wings, spread or folded, are typically the compositional anchor around which the rest of the image is organized.