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

This print from the Kyôsai hyakuzu likely presents a figure drawn from Buddhist iconography or Japanese mythology, two registers that Kyosai moved between fluidly throughout the series. His early training under Utagawa Kuniyoshi gave him a command of dynamic figure composition, and his later Kanō studies added structural rigor to his figure drawing. The key block line would be confident and spare, isolating the subject against a ground that may carry graduated bokashi applied with the baren to suggest atmospheric depth. Within the Hyakuzu, Kyosai frequently juxtaposed sacred and comic registers — a guardian deity rendered with formal precision in one sheet, a stumbling drunk in the next — and this tonal instability is part of what distinguishes the series from more conventional print suites of the period. The printed sheet would have been dampened and pressed through multiple blocks, with each registration mark ensuring alignment of color areas across the washi support.