Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋 暁斎) - (Artist Intro)

ARTIST: Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋 暁斎)

BORN: 18 May 1831, Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan

DIED: 26 April 1889, Tokyo, Japan

WORKS: Demon of painting, Yokai Wars: Demonic Manga by Kyosai, Night Parade of Hell Creatures 

Kawanabe Memorial Museum
Biography and Signatures 

The artist Kyosai was a Japanese artist, in the words of a critic, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting".
Living through the Edo period to the Meiji period, Kyōsai 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 apart from a corpse in the Kanda river. After working for a short time as a boy with Utagawa Kuniyoshi, he received his artistic training in the Kanō school, but soon abandoned the formal traditions for the greater freedom of the popular school. (Wikipedia)

When Kyosai was a child and training as an artist at the Surugadai branch of the Kano School of painting, his teacher nicknamed him “demon painter,” because of his impressive talent. Even before that, however, Kyosai had trained under the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Once established as an independent artist, Kyosai pursued various artistic styles and techniques throughout his life.

Art Names (gō)¹
Kyōsai (Gyōsai) 暁斎 or 暁斎 or 狂齋 ²
Tōiku (Tōyū) 洞郁
Baiga 売画
Baiga Dōjin 売画道人
Baiga Kyōsha 売画狂者 (狂者 insane person)
Chikamaro 周麿 (used until middle of 1863)
Gaki 画鬼
Hata Kyōsha 畑狂者 (狂者 insane person)
Kyōsha Gaishi 狂者外史
Nyokū (Jokū) Nyūdō 如空入堂 (entering the way)
Raisui 雷酔 ("thunder drunk"
Shōshōan (Seiseian) 猩々庵 (惺々庵)

Shōshō (Shōjō) Kyōsai 猩々狂斎 (猩々heavy drinker)
Shōshōsai (Seiseisai) 猩々斎
Shuransai 酒乱斎 (酒乱 drunken frenzy)
Suiraibō 酔雷坊

Signatures and Seals

  Kyōsai

Seal with head of carp and sunken Kyōsai

Shoki riding a tiger and attacking a group of demons. “May” from a series of Twelve Months. Published by Fukuda Kumajuro

Examples of other works by Kyosai can be seen here
The Lavenberg Collection of kawanabe prints can be seen here