Kawanabe Ky?sai
河鍋 ??
Kanawabe Ky?sai in 1880s.
Born	Sh?zabur? 18 May 1831 Koga Ishimachi, Shimousa Province, (currently Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture), Japan
Died	26 April 1889 (1889-04-26) (aged 57) Zuirinji Temple, Tokyo , Japan
Resting place	Tait? Ward, Tokyo
Nationality	Japanese
Known for	Painting, drawing, portraits
Movement	Ukiyo-e , Japanese Zen , Nihonga
Family	Kawanabe Ky?sui (daughter)

Kawanabe Ky?sai ^[1] ( 河鍋 ?? , May 18, 1831 ? April 26, 1889) was a Japanese painter and caricaturist . In the words of art historian Timothy Clarke, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting". ^[2]

Biography [ edit ]

Living through the Edo period to the Meiji period , Ky?sai witnessed Japan transform itself from a feudal country into a modern state. Born at Koga , he was the son of a samurai . His first aesthetic shock was at the age of nine when he picked up a human head separated from a corpse in the Kanda river . ^[3] After working for a short time as a boy with ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi , he received his formal artistic training in the Kan? school under Maemura T?wa (前村洞和, ? ? 1841), who gave him the nickname "The Painting Demon", but Ky?sai soon abandoned the formal traditions for the greater freedom of the popular school. During the political ferment which produced and followed the revolution of 1867 , Ky?sai attained a reputation as a caricaturist . His very long painting on makimono (a horizontal type of Japanese handscroll /scroll) "The battle of the farts" may be seen as a caricature of this ferment. He was arrested three times and imprisoned by the authorities of the shogunate . Soon after the assumption of effective power by the Emperor, a great congress of painters and men of letters was held at which Ky?sai was present. He again expressed his opinion of the new movement in a caricature, which had a great popular success, but also brought him into the hands of the police, this time of the opposite party. ^[4]

Ky?sai is considered by many to be the greatest successor of Hokusai (of whom, however, he was not a pupil), as well as the first political caricaturist of Japan. His work mirrored his life in its wild and undisciplined nature, and occasionally reflected his love of drink. Although he did not possess Hokusai's dignity, power or reticence, he compensated with a fantastic exuberance, which always lent interest to his technically excellent draughtsmanship. ^[4]

He created what is considered to be the first manga magazine in 1874: Eshinbun Nipponchi , with Kanagaki Robun . ^[5] The magazine was heavily influenced by Japan Punch , founded in 1862 by Charles Wirgman , a British cartoonist. Eshinbun Nipponchi had a very simple style of drawings and did not become popular with many people, and ended after just three issues.

In addition to his caricatures, Ky?sai painted a large number of pictures and sketches, often choosing subjects from the folklore of his country, No drama , nature and religion, for example The Temptation of Shaka Niorai or The goddess Kwannon on a dragon (on kakejiku frame). ^[6] A fine collection of these works is preserved in the British Museum ; and there are also good examples in the National Art Library at South Kensington and the Guimet Museum at Paris . ^[4] The Kawanabe Ky?sai Memorial Museum ^[7] was established in 1977, located at Warabi , Saitama Prefecture , Japan.

Erwin Balz wrote in his diary that Kyosai died because of gastric cancer. ^[8]

A crater on Mercury has been named in his honor.

Bibliography [ edit ]

The most important work about Ky?sai's art and life was written by himself: Ky?sai Gadan (???談), or "Ky?sai's Treatise on Painting", half autobiography and half painting manual. An important contemporary work concerning the artist is Kawanabe Ky?sai-? den (河鍋??翁?), or "Biography of the Old Man Kawanabe Ky?sai", by Iijima Kyoshin (飯島?心). The work was finished in 1899, but published only in 1984.

Many westerners came to visit Ky?sai, and their memoirs about the artist are valuable. The two important ones, both rare, are:

• Emile Etienne Guimet , Promenades japonaises , Paris, 1880
• Josiah Conder , Paintings and Studies by Kawanabe Ky?sai , Tokyo, 1911. Conder was a serious student of Japanese art; after some initial rejections, he was accepted as Ky?sai's pupil, and accompanied him for ten years until the master's death.

The most updated, and easily available, reference to Ky?sai's life and works in English is:

• Timothy Clark, Demon of painting: the art of Kawanabe Ky?sai , London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by the British Museum Press, 1993

Gallery [ edit ]

• 
  Bake-Bake Gakk? (化?學校), or "School for Spooks". In August 1872, the Meiji government decided to implement a system of compulsory education. In this caricature, both demons (above) and kappa (center) are learning vocabulary concerning their daily life. The former are taught by Sh?ki the demon queller, dressed in western-style uniform. Some goblins try to enter the school (below), but are blown away by the Wind God.
• 
  Renjishi (連獅子), or "Dance of a Pair of Lions", by Ky?sai. Renjishi is a famous dance in the Kabuki theatre.
• 
  Izanagi and Izanami giving birth to Japan, c. 1870
• 
  Promenades japonaises, 1880
• 
  Flowers and Birds (花鳥?), 1881, Exhibited at The second National Industrial Exhibition.
• 
  Frolicking Animals, Nekomata and Tanuki Badger
• 
  A Beauty in Front of King Enma's Mirror
• 
  Hell Courtesan
• 
  Full Moon with Crow on Plum Branch, 1930
• 
  Never Seen Before - True Picture of a Live Wild Tiger

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kawanabe Ky?sai .

• Works by or about Kawanabe Ky?sai at Internet Archive