Banquet

"Banquet" is a subject to which Kawakami returned repeatedly in his career — the festive gathering around a table, the communal pleasure of food and drink and company, rendered in his distinctive simplified style that owed something to Western folk illustration and something to Japanese naganuri painting. Whether the banquet is Japanese or Western in character, Kawakami's treatment gives it the quality of a slightly enchanted scene: the figures arranged around the table with a formal gaiety, the food and drink depicted with affectionate directness.