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

Monkeys appear in Japanese art as comic surrogates for human behavior and as subjects of the classical kacho-e tradition, particularly in snowy scenes indebted to Chinese Song-dynasty painting. Kyōsai hyakuzu likely includes a monkey subject that engages both registers simultaneously: the animal's posture and expression carry comic or satirical implications even as the image displays genuine naturalistic observation of primate anatomy. Kyōsai's monkeys may be depicted in groups — a parent with young, or a trio in disagreement — or as solitary figures in contemplative stillness, a pose that consciously echoes the aesthetic of the Zen ink-painting tradition. The coloring of Japanese macaques — warm russet-grey fur, the distinctive red facial skin — required careful mixing of pigments in the printing process, with the red face applied as a discrete block separate from the body color. Any snow or winter setting would have been rendered through the reserved white of the washi paper with sparse ink detailing.