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

This woodblock print belongs to the Kyōsai hyakuzu, a wide-ranging series in which Kawanabe Kyosai surveyed his full pictorial vocabulary across one hundred compositions. The series drew on Kanō school draftsmanship, Shijō naturalism, and the popular caricature traditions of gesaku illustration. Prints in this group frequently feature supernatural subjects — oni, tengu, or wandering yūrei — rendered with fluid, assured line work characteristic of an artist trained from childhood under Kanō Tōhaku. Kyosai's approach to composition tends toward dynamic asymmetry, with figures placed off-center against spare or atmospheric backgrounds. Bokashi gradations in the sky or ground plane give spatial depth without recourse to Western perspective. The print was likely produced during the 1870s or 1880s, when Kyosai was at the height of his output as a printmaker and his work circulated widely among Meiji-era urban audiences drawn to his blend of classical learning and transgressive wit.