Picture Books of Kawanabe Kyosai

Title: Picture Books of Kawanabe Kyōsai
Author: Kenji Hinohara, with contributions from Hitomi Sawada
Publisher: Seigensha
Language: Japanese
Year of publication: 2022
Number of pages: 288, color and black and white
Paperback, dimensions: 15 x 11 cm
ISBN: 9784861529030
Printed in Japan

The painter and ukiyo-e artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) lived and worked in turbulent times: the decline of the Edo-period shogunate was followed in 1868 by the Meiji Restoration, Japan's opening to the West, and the modernization of the country. Considered by many to be Japan's first political cartoonist, he created fascinating and exaggerated depictions of people, skeletons, animals, monsters, and more, imbued with his distinctive humor. This publication by Kenji Hinohara, Chief Curator of the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, brings together a selection of 224 works from his most famous picture books, such as the Kyosai Manga , Kyosai Donga , Kyosai Suiga , and Kyosai Hyakki Gadan, grouped into three categories: "Human Figures and Skeletons," "Animals and Nature," and "Spirits and Gods." A diverse array of images that will both amaze and amuse.