Kyoto Kyocera Museum Hosts Utagawa Kuniyoshi Ukiyo-e Exhibition Featuring 1861 Work

The Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, located in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, is currently hosting the exhibition "Ukiyo-e Super Creator: Utagawa Kuniyoshi." This article introduces the exhibits in five installments. The second installment covers the work "Shume no Sake no Kimitoki, Yurugi no Jo no Unei Sadamitsu, Takiguchi no Toneri Genji no Tsuna and the Demons."

The work, created in 1861 (Bunkyu 1), is from a private collection. Utagawa Kuniyoshi was fond of depicting giant monsters and demons. In the mid-Edo period, artist Toriyama Sekien popularized demon paintings, and his representative work "Hyakki Yagyo" (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) portrayed demons with comical postures. However, over time, demons came to be depicted as fearsome figures. Kuniyoshi's "Soma no Kounai" (The Palace of Soma), in which a giant skeleton is manipulated by a sorcerer, is a representative of his terrifying demon works.

Kuniyoshi also produced many humorous demon pieces. The present work depicts a scene where the lord Minamoto no Yorimitsu is bedridden due to the mischief of the earth spider demon, and his vassals keep watch while playing go. The player of black stones, Sakata no Kintoki, grabs the upper lip of a tea-serving child, while the player of white stones, Watanabe no Tsuna, picks a stone from the left go bowl and holds down the head of a long-necked demon. The work shows the heroes' valor in easily subduing the demons. At the same time, including the one-eyed priest who taps the shoulder of Usui Sadamitsu in the center, the demons that should be terrifying are depicted as clumsy and inept, evoking laughter and a sense of pathos.