Kyosai Kawanabe

Kawanabe Kyosai's 100 Demons Kyosai Kawanabe

An incredible and unusual hit from 1890, 100 Demons is a post-humous mind-twister from famous Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai. It flew off the shelves when it was released shortly after his death. This volume has the same dimensions and contents as the original along with a forward from Japanese art historian Andrew Livingston.

Japanese folklore is rife with zany and weird creatures that have captured the imaginations of artists and authors in Japan and around the world for centuries. Kawanabe Kyosai lived through the transformation of Japan from a feudal society to a modern state. Born in 1831 in Koga in modern Ibaraki Prefecture, he was trained in the Kano school of Japanese art. As a boy he worked for a short time with famed woodblock artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

The Kano School, famed for its focus on painting castles and on panels, was a heralded school in Japanese aesthetic design for centuries. During the 1867 revolution, Kyosai was known more as a caricaturist. He was arrested three times by the shogunate, the feudal government he lived to see overthrown. He then went on to lambast the new government headed by Emperor Meiji.

Kyosai succeeded Hokusai as one of the great artists of Japanese history. His art evokes the traditional aesthetic, but betrays his unease with the world. His subjects are often the changes in modern life, wildlife and nature.