1850
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Untitled is a 1850 paint by Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎, a Ukiyo-e work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
The painting shows a rabbit in peasant costume striking a tinder-box, setting fire to a bundle of twigs on a tanuki's back. This scene is from a Japanese folktale, the Tale of Kachi-kachi Yama. The animals are dressed like humans, which adds a unique twist to the story. To learn more about the style and methods used in this painting, look into the technique of chiaroscuro.
In this sketch by Kawanabe Kyosai from 1850, the final scene of the *Tale of Kachi-kachi Yama* is depicted, showing the rabbit striking a tinder-box to ignite twigs strapped to the back of a shape-shifting tanuki. Both animals wear peasant clothing and assume human postures and mannerisms. The revenge is carried out by the rabbit rather than the tale’s elderly man, as part of a series of works by the Meiji-period artist.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋 暁斎; May 18, 1831 – April 26, 1889) was a Japanese painter and caricaturist. In the words of art historian Timothy Clark, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting".
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