Kyōsai often used animals to convey political sentiments, his work blends traditional Asian culture and painting styles with modern elements, especially animals, and modern behaviour.
In certain contexts, he seems to have a knack for using behaviours and features beyond the normal human body to convey messages, which means that his works all look bizarre but peculiar.
This exhibition also houses Ghost, a haunting drawing of the artist’s late wife. We are shown the sketch for this work alongside the finished result, where a lantern’s light is used to fade part of the woman, as if she is already disappearing.
My favourite part of the exhibition is this painting of a Buddhist monk, a samurai is standing in front of (or on the face of) a monk dancing, which looks like a provocation, while the monk is full of calm and quiet, and there seems to be a huge contrast in this work, both in terms of the demeanour and movement of both sides, and in terms of scale and size. I particularly like the composition of this work and the author’s approach to the Buddha, which appears to be a casual sketch of lines, but with the look and solemnity that a Buddha should have.