Kawanabe kyosai

Skull with lizard by Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai (May 18, 1831 – April 26, 1889)

The human imagination is continually active and so vivid that imagined beings constantly threaten to overwhelm our sense of reality. Fantastic creatures are found in art of all times and places, but people in some cultures feel more threatened by them.

Kawanabe Kyōsai

Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889, Japanese) was born the son of a samurai...When he was just 6 yrs old, he was admitted to the school of Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

Dancing animals / Spirits in kimono (part of yokai print series) by Kawanabe Kyosai, ca. 1850-60.

Works from the exhibition: Kawanabe Kyosai, the “demon of painting,” was an artistic genius active in a great variety of fields. For many years, assessments of his oeuvre focused on his caricatures and his paintings of ghosts, demons, and other fey creatures. Recent research, however, has been revealing how, based on the brushwork techniques he carried on from the Surugadai branch of the Kano school and his highly individual sensibility, Kyosai expanded his range of activities. This…

Kawanabe Kyosai (1871-89) Hanging Scroll: Skeletons

Skeletons at Play, attributed to japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai, 19th century.

Kawanabe Kyōsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with images of the Buddhist hells

Hell Courtesan Dreaming of Skeletons, by Kawanabe Kyosai, 19th century #ukiyo