Kawanabe Kyōsai: the demon with a brush

Kawanabe Kyosai, A Beauty in Front of King Enma’s Mirror, 1871–89 (1887?). Hanging scroll: ink, colour and gold on silk, 35.3 × 52 cm. Israel Goldman Collection, London. Photo: Ken Adlard

Kyōsai blurred the divide between the popular and elite art of 19th-century Japan. In this article, Christopher Harding, Senior Lecturer in Asian History at the University of Edinburgh. discusses the master of satirical and traditional painting as an introduction to Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection which opens at the Royal Academy in London on 19 March 2022.