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

The Kyōsai hyakuzu series reflects Kyosai's career-long interest in mythological subjects drawn from the Shinto tradition — deities, legendary animals, and scenes from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. A print with mythological content might depict a dragon emerging from storm clouds, a thundergod (Raijin) mid-exertion, or a scene from the Age of the Gods rendered with the vigorous brushwork Kyosai brought to all his figure subjects. Dragons in particular allowed Kyosai to demonstrate his mastery of the sinuous, overlapping curves that Chinese and Japanese dragon iconography demanded, translating ink painting conventions into the layered color blocks of the woodblock process. Such imagery carried both narrative and decorative functions, as suitable for a collector's album as for popular commercial distribution — a range that the Kyōsai hyakuzu series served across its one hundred compositions.