Shōki, the Demon Queller

This 1770 sumizuri-e (black-ink only) woodblock print on paper, in the Art Institute of Chicago collection, depicts Shoki, the Demon Queller, the Chinese deity Zhong Kui who in Japan became the standard guardian against pestilence and a popular subject for Boy's Day prints and door images. Shoki appears in his familiar iconography, the heavily bearded scholar-warrior in voluminous court robes with sword drawn, ready to subdue the demons of disease. The choice of pure ink (sumizuri-e) rather than full [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) is itself meaningful: it locates the print within the tradition of inexpensive protective images sold for household use, and it shows that Toyoharu, even at the height of the color-print revolution, continued to design in older, more popular formats. The Shoki print also demonstrates the range of his repertoire beyond uki-e: alongside perspective experiments and [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), he supplied the Edo market with the kind of ritual and seasonal images that were the everyday currency of the woodblock trade.