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

From Kyosai hyakuzu, this woodblock print likely depicts a tanuki — the raccoon dog of Japanese folklore celebrated for shapeshifting, mischief, and jovial excess. Kyosai portrayed tanuki repeatedly, often engaged in comic transformation scenes or drumming on their distended bellies, a gesture associated with merriment and perhaps gentle social satire. The figure would be rendered with the rounded, physical comedy Kyosai applied to comic subjects, the key-block line loose and gestural, the coloring warm and uncomplicated. The series was published commercially and aimed at a broad audience that included both connoisseurs of the arts and general buyers, and sheets with folkloric animal subjects would have been among its most accessible offerings. The print participates in a long Edo-period tradition of tanuki imagery while reflecting Kyosai's own highly individual approach to the conventions of popular printmaking.