Themed Exhibit: Kawanabe Kyosai: The Demon of Painting
Exhibit Period
Friday, April 1 – Sunday, May 8, 2022
Exhibit Times
9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
(last admissions at 4:30 p.m.)
Museum closed
April 4, 11, 18, 25; May 6
Admission Fee
Adults: 500 (450) yen High School, College Students: 300 (270) yen * Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors * Free admission for visitors aged over 70 years, elementary and junior high school students, and preschoolers * Half price for visitors with a physical disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver
Overview
Kawanabe Kyosai won enormous popularity as an artist during the late Edo and Meiji periods. He studied ukiyo-e under Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and apprenticed under Tohaku, the head of Kano family Surugadai atelier. Kyosai also studied widely in the Tosa, Rinpa, Shijo and other ancient Japanese painting schools, and left behind works in a broad variety of genres.
In this exhibition, we introduce diverse works of Kyosai from the collection of Oikawa Shigeru, emeritus professor of comparative studies, including raven paintings that show the best of the ink and wash technique, immensely powerful pictures of Shoki (the Demon Queller), and humorous brocade prints of animals and supernatural apparitions.
Enjoy the many unconventional works of Kyosai, who was so devoted to his painting that he called himself a ‘painting demon.’