Kawanabe Kyosai 河鍋 暁斎: One Hundred Night Demons Magic Lantern (SOLD)

Artist: Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋 暁斎
Title: Shadow Picture of the Forms of the One Hundred Night Demons (Hyakki yagyo sugata utsushi-e).

Shadow Picture of the Forms of the One Hundred Night Demons (Hyakki yagyo sugata utsushi-e). Fascinating tableau of ghostly and human silhouettes. We see a mouse and a bat swordfighting with a bird- tengu at left, while a female ghost at right seems to arise from the tongue of a larger flaming ghost at center.  We see a samurai skeleton (no flesh, yet wearing 2 swords) and a large central ghost emanating from a man at left. The three hapless humans in the scene (2 shown with court caps) are rightly terrified. A single oil lamp is shown burning lower right. This series shows a magic lantern that would rotate above a candle flame and project images of these yokai spinning around the room. As noted in “This is Kyosai”, “...It is a work that fascinates down to the finest detail.”  Very scarce.

Date: ca. 1860s
Condition: Excellent impression, good color, very good condition. Unbacked.
Dimensions: Oban (36 x 24 cm)

Literature: See “This is Kyosai!” (2017), page 181, number 153. Clark, Demon of Painting: The Art of Kawanabe Kyosai, 1993, no. 34; KKM, 1990, no. 141. 

SKU: KSC043S