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

This print from Kyosai hyakuzu likely presents one of the animal subjects that constituted a significant portion of the series. Kyosai was a keen observer of animal behavior and drew extensively from nature as well as from Kano and Shijo school precedents. A subject such as a crane, hawk, or carp rendered in the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) tradition would be handled here with close attention to posture and surface texture — feather patterns conveyed through fine parallel hatching in the key block, water or foliage given atmospheric depth through graduated color printing. The [oban](/glossary/oban) format of the sheet allowed the artist and publisher sufficient space to balance a central figure against a spare or subtly shaded ground. Produced in the 1880s during a period of Kyosai's growing international recognition, the series combined the conventions of popular Edo-period printmaking with the looser brushwork aesthetics of literati painting.